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UN  VERS  T     OF  CALIFORNIA   SAN  DIEGO 


3  1822023042211 


••'. 

,-;<?„-  t 


WOMEN   AND    M-EN 


BY 

THOMAS  WENTWOKTH  HIGGINSON 

AUTIIOR  OF    "A  LARGER  HISTORY  OF  TIIE  UNITED  STATES1'   ETC. 


NEW    YORK 

HARPER   &   BROTHERS,  FRANKLIN   SQUARE 
1888 


Copyright,  1837,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 

All  riglib  retcncd. 


TO 


BRANDER  MATTHEWS 

AT  WHOSE  KINDLY  SUGGESTION  THIS  LITTLE 
VOLUME  HAS  BEEN  PREPARED 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASS. 
Oct.  13,  1887 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  INTRODUCTORY 1 

II.   OUTSIDE    OF   THE    SHELTER 7 

III.  THE   SHADOW   OF    THE    HAREM 12 

IV.  THE  WOMAN   OF    INFLUENCE 17 

V.   THE   SWING   OF  THE   SOCIAL    PENDULUM....  22 

VI.  THE   CREATOR   OF   THE   HOME 28 

VII.  VACATIONS  FOR  SAINTS  33 

VIII.   MAIDEN   AUNTS 38 

IX.   ON  ONE'S    RELATIONSHIP  TO  ONE'S  MOTHER  43 

X.   THE   FLOOD-TIDE   OF  YOUTH 48 

XI.   "BUT   STRONG    OF   WILL1' 54 

XII.   MARKETABLE    ACCOMPLISHMENTS CO 

xin.  "CHANCES" 65 

XIV.   THE   DAUGHTERS    OF   TOIL 70 

XV.   THE  EMPIRE   OF    MANNERS 75 

XVI.   UNREASONABLE    UNSELFISHNESS 80 

xvii.  WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  ON  LITERARY  STYLE.     85 

XVIII.   THE    SINGLE    WILL 90 

XIX.   ON  A  CERTAIN   HUMILITY  IN  AMERICANS...      95 

xx.  "QUITE  RUSTIC" 100 

XXI.   THE  TOY   OF   ROYALTY 105 

xxn.  WOMEN'S  LETTERS 110 

XXIII.  THE   INDEPENDENT  PURSE 115 

XXIV.  BREAKING    AND    BENDING 121 

XXV.   EXALTED    STATIONS 126 

XXVI.    FINER    FORCES 131 

XXVII.   A    HOUSE   OF   CARDS 136 

XXVIII.    MICE  AND  MARTYRDOM 141 

XXIX.    THE    ORGANIZING  MIND....  146 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XXX.  THE   SEARCH  AFTEK  A   PUBLISHER 151 

xxxi.  MEN'S  NOVELS  AND  WOMEN'S  NOVELS....  156 
XXXII.  WOMEN  AS  HOUSEHOLD  DECORATORS 161 

XXXIII.  VOICES 166 

XXXIV.  SOCIAL  SUPERIORS 171 

XXXV.  THE  SECRET  OF  THE  BIRTHDAY 176 

XXXVI.  THE  NEW  THEORY  OF  LANGUAGE 181 

XXXVII.  TRUST  FUNDS 187 

XXXVIII.  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  UNCOMMONPLACE 192 

XXXIX.  CHILDREN  ON  A  FARM 197 

XL.  WHO  SHALL  FIX  THE  VALUE? 202 

XLI.  A  WOMAN'S  ENTERPRISE 207 

XLII.  CITY  AND  COUNTRY  LIVING 212 

XLIII.  THE  HUMOR  OF  CHILDREN 217 

XLIV.  PAROCHIALISM 222 

XLV.  ON  VISITING  THE  SICK 227 

XLVI.  THE  FEAR  OF  ITS  BEING  WASTED 232 

XLVII.  THE  NERVOUSNESS  OF  MEN 238 

XLVIII.  THE  GERMAN  STANDARD 243 

XLIX.  THE  MISSING  MUSICAL  WOMAN 249 

L.  THE  BRUTALITY  OF  "  PUNCH  AND  JUDY ".  254 
LI.  WHY  WOMEN  AUTHORS  WRITE  UNDER  THE 

NAMES  OF  MEN 259 

LII.  THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  DOLLS 264 

LIII.  SANTA  CLAUS  AGENCIES 269 

LIV.  KERENHAPPUCH 275 

LV.  AMERICAN  LOVE  OF  HOME 281 

LVI.  MORE  THOROUGH  WORK  VISIBLE 286 

LVII.  CHRISTMAS  ALL  THE  TIME 291 

LVIII.  THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  WEAK 296 

LIX.  A  RETURN  TO  THE  HILLS 301 

LX.  THE  SHY  GRACES 306 

INDEX ..  311 


WOMEN  AND    MEN. 


I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

IN  beginning  a  series  of  modest  papers  under  this 
rather  ambitious  title,  I  am  reminded  that,  compre- 
hensive as  it  seems,  the  phrase  is  in  one  respect  very 
recent.  It  is  only  within  a  century  or  so  that  the 
two  sexes  have  been  habitually  addressed  together. 
The  phrase  "  women  and  men,"  or  its  more  com- 
mon form,  "  ladies  ahd  gentlemen,"  or  that  other 
form,  "gentlemen  and  ladies,"  which  the  late  Mr. 
Emerson  habitually  used,  is  a  comparatively  modern 
thing.  Before  the  advent  of  Christianity  we  should 
not  expect  to. find  it  used,  and  accordingly  the  great 
orations  of  ancient  times  were  addressed  to  men 
only.  Even  after  Christianity  had  brought  a  theo- 
retic equality  between  the  sexes  the  Jewish  tradition 
still  held  strongly,  and  most  of  the  fathers  of  the 
Church  are,  it  must  be  owned,  rather  oppressively 
masculine.  But  among  them  there  is  one  great 
1 


2  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

exception,  one  who  for  non-theological  purposes  is 
more  readable  than  all  the  rest  put  together ;  and 
he  it  is,  Clement  of  Alexandria  by  name,  who  intro- 
duced to  the  world  in  his  discourses  the  phrase 
"  men  and  women,"  or  "  women  and  men,"  for  ho- 
uses both  forms. 

The  truth  is  that  Clement  was  a  very  learned 
Greek  philosopher,  who  had  gone  through  a  con- 
version. He  dearly  loved  the  Greek  mythology, 
in  which  women  take  a  part  so  conspicuous ;  and 
though  he  felt  bound  to  preach  against  that  my- 
thology all  the  time,  he  could  not  help  dwelling  on 
its  picturesque  details.  To  him  every  woman  was 
a  sort  of  reformed  Artemis  or  Aphrodite,  always 
tempted  to  relapse  into  her  sins.  The  vanities  of 
dress  especially  horrified  him,  though  it  surely  was 
not  in  any  undue  profusion  or  variety  of  costume 
that  the  beautiful  Greek  goddesses  chiefly  erred. 
Had  lie  lived  in  these  times,  and  written  for  Har- 
per's Bazar,  he  would  doubtless  have  entered  his 
protest  on  every  page  against  the  new  fashions  on 
the  page  opposite.  But  his  merit  was  that  he  bore 
his  testimony,  whether  wise  or  unwise,  for  the  bene- 
fit of  both  sexes  alike.  For  women  to  braid  false 
hair  upon  the  crown  of  the  head  was  no  worse  than 
for  men  to  displace  from  the  chin  the  hair  that 
God  has  placed  there.  If  women  wear  false  hair, 
he  says,  they  not  only  deceive  men,  but  commit  im- 


INTRODUCTORY.  3 

piety  towards  the  presbyter,  who  in  blessing  them 
really  lays  his  hand  of  benediction  on  another's 
hair,  and  therefore  on  another  head.  But  men 
should  crop  their  hair  decently,  and  not  disturb 
that  upon  the  chin,  as  it  "  lends  to  the  face  dignity 
and  paternal  majesty."  All  this  in  a  single  para- 
graph of  his  series  of  discourses  known  as  the  "  In- 
structor," and  he  afterwards  sends  the  two  sexes, 
thus  impartially  instructed,  to  church  together. 
"  Women  and  men  are  to  go  to  church  decently 
attired,  with  natural  step,  embracing  silence,  possess- 
ing unfeigned  love,  pure  in  body,  pure  in  heart,  fit 
to  pray  to  God."  And  again  he  says  in  a  passage 
often  quoted,  "The  virtue  of  man  and  woman  is 
the  same."* 

It  was  long  after  the  days  of  Clement  of  Alexan- 
dria when  it  became  a  common  thing  to  unite  the 
two  sexes  for  the  purpose  even  of  scolding  them  con- 
jointly. Gradually  the  habit  arose  of  putting  these 
admonitions  into  little  twin  volumes,  always  kept 
carefully  apart.  The  duties  of  men  and  women 
travelled,  so  to  speak,  on  the  same  conveyance  and 
with  equal  accommodations,  but  in  separate  cars 
or  distinct  cabins,  and  always,  as  in  our  own  travel- 
ling arrangements,  with  a  slight  excess  of  courtesy 
towards  the  feminine  side.  The  author  of  "  The 

*  Wilson's  translation,  I.,  121,  318,  328. 


4  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

Whole  Duty  of  Man"  published  at  Oxford  in  1673 
another  volume  called  "  The  Ladies'  Calling,"  with 
a  frontispiece  representing  a  British  matron  sitting 
in  a  transverse  ray  of  sunlight,  and  stretching  a  ro- 
bust right  arm  upward  after  the  crown  of  wisdom. 
According  to  the  titles  of  these  books  it  would 
seem  that  men  have  their  "  whole  duty  "  to  perform 
as  "men,"  while  women  follow  their  "calling"  as 
"ladies,"  a  distinction  even  more  confusing  than 
that  of  the  stations  on  the  American  railways, 
whose  doors  are  sometimes  tersely  labelled  "  Men  " 
and  "Women,"  while  others  bear  in  preference 
the  more  fastidious  designation  "Gentlemen  "  and 
"Ladies."  It  was  not  till  1797  that  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Gisborne,  having  already  published  his 
"Duties  of  Men,"  came  out  with  a  corresponding 
volume,  "Duties  of  Women,"  which  at  once  super- 
seded all  similar  works,  and  instructed  the  women 
of  England — leaving  the  "  ladies "  to  take  care  of 
themselves — for  fifty  years,  the  fourteenth  edition 
appearing  in  1847,  and  I  know  not  how  many  oth- 
ers since  that  day.  Since  his  time  men  and  wom- 
en have  so  constantly  worked  together  for  the  pur- 
pose of  moral  instruction,  at  least,  that  we  almost 
forget  that  the  joint  phrase  practically  originated 
with  St.  Clement. 

But  it  was  the  British  stage,  after  all,  which  took 
the  hint  more  promptly  than  the  Church ;  and  al- 


INTRODUCTORY.  5 

though  at  first  it  would  not  tolerate  women  upon 
its  boards,  soon  addressed  to  both  sexes  its  prol- 
ogues and  its  epilogues.  In  the  epilogue  to  the  old 
play  of  "Juliana,  or  the  Princess  of  Poland,"  this 
being  spoken  in  dialogue,  as  often  happened,  by  an 
actor  of  each  sex,  the  woman  rebukes  the  man  for 
addressing  the  audience  as  "  You,  gentlemen  !"  She 
says : 

"  You,  gentlemen !  and  why,  I  pray,  to  them  ? 
AVhat !  do  the  ladies  merit  no  esteem  ?" 

She  then  takes  his  place,  and  addresses  the  whole 
audience  as  if  it  were  a  parliament,  or,  in  the  phrase 
then  familiar,  a  diet : 

"Fair  English  Diet,  then, 
Senate  of  ladies,  lower  house  of  men, 
I  humbly  pray,  decree  before  you  go." 

This  was  in  1671,  the  author  being  "little  starch 
Johnny  Crownc,"  as  Lord  Rochester  called  him, 
from  his  starched  neck-cloth.  Crowne  was  born  in 
Nova  Scotia ;  and  it  is  curious  that  even  at  that 
early  day  this  continent  should  have  begun  to  sup- 
ply England  with  the  seeds  of  social  heresy  on  "  the 
woman  question." 

In  these  days  the  joint  phrase  "  Men  and  Wom- 
en "  has  thoroughly  established  itself,  and  needs 
no  further  vindication  ;  and  if  I  reverse  it,  putting 
women  first,  it  is  with  no  revolutionary  design,  al- 


6  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

though  for  a  definite  purpose.  "  It  is  all  very  well," 
said  Danton,  in  the  French  Revolution,  "  so  long 
as  people  cry  Danton  and  Robespierre !  It  is 
when  they  begin  to  cry  Robespierre  and  Danton! 
that  I  must  look  to  my  safety."  In  saying  "  Wom- 
en and  Men"  it  is  only  implied  that  these  papers 
are  addressed  more  to  the  one  sex  than  the  other, 
though  exclusively  to  neither.  The  interests,  tastes, 
duties,  and  position  of  women  have  come  to  consti- 
tute a  separate  department  of  literature,  and  often  a 
literature  by  itself.  The  time  has  passed  when  men 
wrote  down  to  women  ;  and  it  was  the  mile-stono 
of  a  new  era  when  the  greatest  of  modern  poets 
put  into  the  hands  of  woman,  at  the  close  of  his 
"  Faust,"  the  guiding  thread  of  the  world's  imme- 
diate future.  Das  Ewlgweibliche  zieht  uns  hinan, 
or,  as  Bayard  Taylor  translates  it, 

"  The  Woman-soul  leadeth  us 
Upward  and  On." 


II. 

OUTSIDE   OF  THE   SHELTER. 

MANY  years  ago,  in  April,  1859,  Harriet  Marti- 
neau  wrote  an  article  on  "  Female  Industry,"  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  and  stated  very  forcibly  the 
wholly  changed  conditions  of  women's  labor  since 
the  days  when  "Adam  delved  and  Eve  span."  She 
called  attention  to  the  simple  fact  that  a  very  large 
proportion  of  English  women  now  earn  their  own 
bread,  and  that  upon  this  changed  condition  the 
whole  question  must  turn.  "A  social  organization," 
she  said,  "  framed  for  a  community  of  which  half 
stayed  at  home  while  the  other  half  went  out  to 
work  cannot  answer  the  purposes  of  a  society  of 
which  a  quarter  remains  at  home  while  three-quar- 
ters go  out  to  work."  She  pointed  out  that  while  it 
might  formerly  have  been  true,  as  a  rule,  that  men 
supported  women,  it  was  also  true  that  this  state  of 
things  had  already  ceased  to  be  the  general  fact. 
"Three  millions  out  of  six  of  adult  English  wom- 
en work  for  subsistence,  and  two  out  of  the  three 
in  independence.  With  this  new  condition  of  af- 
fairs, new  duties  and  new  views  must  be  adopted." 


8  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

Nearly  thirty  years  have  passed,  and  a  great  many 
people  seem  still  to  believe  that  if  women  would 
only  behave  themselves  they  could  easily  live  in- 
doors, and  spend  their  whole  lives  in  weaving  and 
spinning,  like  their  great-grandmothers.  But  they 
could  not  do  it,  simply  because  there  would  be  no 
market  for  their  labors.  In  Homer's  "  Odyssey," 
when  Nausikaa  of  the  white  arms  has  had  a  dream, 
she  goes  through  the  halls  to  tell  her  royal  parents 
— "her  father  dear  and  her  mother."  She  finds 
them  still  in-doors  :  "  Her  mother  sat  by  the  hearth 
among  the  waiting -women,  spinning  sea -purple 
yarn  ;  she  met  her  father  at  the  door,  just  going 
forth  to  join  the  famous  princes  at  the  council." 
But  if  Nausikaa  of  the  white  arms  went  to  tell  her 
parents  a  dream  in  these  days,  she  might  still  very 
possibly  meet  her  father  going  forth  to  join  the 
princes  (merchant  princes)  at  the  council  (Stock 
Exchange),  but  she  certainly  would  not  find  her 
mother  amid  her  attendants  spinning  clothes  for 
the  family.  Nor  would  Nausikaa  herself  afterwards 
go  with  her  own  maidens  to  the  river  with  the 
family  washing  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  putting 
in  order  the  costumes  of  three  bachelor  brothers, 
always  eager  to  wear  something  new  to  the  dance. 
The  whole  conditions  of  labor,  of  costume,  and  of 
everything  else  are  changed ;  so  that  to  wear  home- 
spun, which  was  once  the  glory  of  the  highest,  is 


OUTSIDE    OP   THE    SHELTER.  9 

now  the  painful  necessity  of  only  the  humblest.  A 
smoking-cap  is  now  the  only  garment  that  Nausikaa 
can  prepare  for  her  bachelor  brothers,  or  at  the  most 
she  can  crochet  for  them  an  afghan — or,  as  Irish 
house-maids  with  geographical  boldness  term  it,  "  an 
African  " — to  put  over  them  during  an  afternoon 
nap.  Even  the  home-made  shirts,  which  lasted  till 
within  the  memory  of  this  generation,  have  now 
come  within  the  domain  of  the  shopkeeper.  The 
sister  would  not  weave  or  spin  for  her  brother  if  he 
wished  it ;  and  he,  in  turn,  would  rather  gratify  her 
in  any  other  way  than  by  wearing  garments  of  her 
spinning  or  weaving.  The  reign  of  Alcinous  and 
his  white-armed  daughter  has  passed;  the  reign  of 
"store  clothes"  has  begun. 

The  change  seems  inevitable,  but  it  has  driven 
women  out  of  shelter.  The  linen  and  the  woollen 
must  still  be  woven  and  made  into  garments,  but 
it  must  be  done  away  from  home.  Even  the  few 
arts  of  this  kind  that  lingered  longest  beneath  the 
cottage  roof  have  almost  or  quite  vanished.  Han- 
nah is  no  longer  "  at  the  window  binding  shoes," 
or  Delia  braiding  straw  hats.  Industry  is  system- 
atized :  Hannah  and  Delia  go  to  labor  at  the  "  shop," 
or  at  the  "  works,"  or  the  "  factory."  They  still  do 
in  substance  what  the  women  did  beneath  the  roof 
of  King  Alcinous ;  but  instead  of  doing  it  as  in 
those  days,  in  return  for  home  and  protection  and 


10  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

food,  they  do  it  for  money.  They  arc  no  longer 
under  shelter;  they  are  thrown  oat  into  the  great, 
busy,  bustling  world;  they  make  their  own  contract 
for  wages,  and  collect  these  for  themselves.  They 
are  as  far  as  possible  from  the  condition  of  per- 
petual tutelage  which  was,  according  to  Sir  Henry 
Maine,  the  recognized  position  of  the  Roman  wom- 
an, following  out  more  systematically  the  condition 
of  her  Greek  sister.  And  this  being  the  case,  we 
must  recognize  the  alteration.  Our  laws,  our  edu- 
cation, our  social  habits,  must  all  adapt  themselves 
to  it. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  our  word  "  meretricious  " 
is  derived  directly  from  the  Latin  word  meretrix, 
meaning  a  woman  of  degraded  character;  and  that 
this  again  was  derived  from  the  seemingly  harm- 
less word  mereo,  to  earn  money.  The  assump- 
tion was  that  there  was  no  way  in  which  money 
could  be  earned  by  a  woman  innocently;  the  mere 
earning  implied  moral  disgrace.  Not  only  is  it  now 
respectable  for  women  to  earn  money,  but  they  must 
usually  leave  home  for  the  purpose.  If  they  are  to 
support  themselves,  they  must  be  looked  for  every- 
where but  at  home,  and  often  in  the  very  places 
where  men  most  congregate.  The  shops  most  ex- 
pressly devoted  to  the  other  sex — men's  clothing- 
stores,  for  instance — may  have  women  installed  as 
book-keepers.  Go  into  those  great  hives  of  men 


OUTSIDE    OF   THE    SHELTER.  11 

collected  under  one  roof  in  a  city  for  the  pursuit 
of  law,  or  brokerage,  or  business  agencies,  and  any 
door  that  opens  may  show  you  some  modest  young 
woman  busy  as  a  copyist  or  type-writer.  Nobody 
thinks  of  it,  nobody  notices  it;  when  her  work  is 
done  she  ties  her  bonnet  under  her  chin  and  goes 
down  the  elevator  and  out  of  the  door.  In  the  days 
of  Alcinous  and  Nausikaa  such  a  mode  of  living 
would  have  been  inconceivable;  in  the  days  of 
Fielding  and  Richardson  it  would  have  been  the 
way  to  disgrace  and  destruction  ;  now  it  is  simply 
the  normal  state  of  things.  What  we  do  not  see  is 
that  the  freedom  in  which  the  mass  of  women  now 
live,  and  are  destined  to  live,  implies  a  very  differ- 
ent mode  of  training,  and  a  wholly  different  code  of 
laws,  from  the  time  when  there  were  but  two  posi- 
tions snpposable  —  out-doors  for  men,  in-doors  for 
women  ;  from  the  time,  in  short,  when  women  were 
not  yet  outside  of  the  shelter. 


III. 

THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  HAREM. 

~\VE  sometimes  hcav  surprise  expressed  that  wom- 
an has  contributed  so  little  to  the  masterpieces  of 
the  world  in  science,  art,  literature.  To  me  the  won- 
der is  always  the  other  way — that  she  has  produced 
anything  in  that  direction  at  all ;  and  this  for  the 
plain  reason  that  the  shadow  of  repression,  which  is 
the  bequest  of  the  Oriental  harem,  still  hangs  over 
her.  That  she  has  always  been  at  a  great  disadvan- 
tage in  training  or  education  is  also  true,  but  it  is 
a  secondary  matter.  The  real  disadvantage  of  wom- 
en lias  lain  in  being  systematically  taught  from 
childhood  up  that  it  is  their  highest  duty  to  efface 
themselves,  or  at  least  keep  out  of  sight.  One  can 
overcome  great  obstacles  as  to  education,  but  to  do 
anything  remarkable  without  running  the  risk  of  be- 
ing conspicuous — this  would  puzzle  the  most  skilful. 
Fame  is  the  shadow  of  great  action.  Now  nobody 
but  Peter  Schlemihl  ever  succeeded  in  living  without 
his  shadow,  and  it  is  not  recorded  that  even  he  en- 
joyed that  situation. 

It  would  be  easy  to  show  by  a  long  series  of  ex- 


THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  HAREM.        13 

amples  the  eager  desire  of  men,  especially  the  me- 
diocre ones,  that  women  should  remain  invisible.  It 
was  the  Latin  epitaph  upon  the  model  woman  that 
she  stayed  at  home  and  spun  —  Domum  servavit, 
lanam  fecit.  It  is  a  motto  which  Mr.  Newell,  the 
scientific  explorer  of  nursery  rhymes,  would  perhaps 
find  preserved  in  Mrs.  Mouse's  answer  to  the  "frog 
who  would  a-wooing  go:" 

'"Pray,  Mistress  Mouse,  are  you  within  ?' — 

Heigho  !  says  Rowley. 
'  Oh  yes,  kind  sir ;  I'm  sitting  to  spin  ' — 
AVith  a  Rowley,  Powley,"  etc. 

But  as  no  amount  of  spinning  saved  that  excellent 
matron  from  the  terrible  cat,  so  Harriet  Martineau 
and  other  literary  women  might  be  as  good  house- 
keepers as  they  pleased  without  clearing  themselves 
from  reproach.  Indeed,  it  is  rather  pathetic  to  no- 
tice how  the  pioneer  women  authors  in  America, 
sucli  as  Mrs.  Child  and  Miss  Leslie,  endeavored  to 
disarm  public  judgment  by  printing  some  "Frugal 
Housewife"  or  "  Seventy-five  Receipts"  before  show- 
ing their  heads  as  writers.  Even  now  the  practice 
is  not  discontinued,  and  Marion  Harland,  with  all 
her  wide  popularity,  has  to  wind  up  with  a  practical 
work  on  "Breakfast,  Dinner, and  Supper"  to  demon- 
strate that,  though  an  author,  she  still  has  the  virtues 
of  her  sex.  We  have  not  yet  outgrown  that  pro- 


14  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

found  remark  of  Fredrika  Bremer  that  a  woman 
may  do  almost  anything  she  pleases  with  a  man  if 
she  always  has  something  nice  to  pop  into  his 
month. 

From  the  days  of  that  Roman  epitaph  onward 
the  theory  of  suppression  has  been  pretty  well  sus- 
tained. It  would  be  easy  to  fill  pages  with  the  say- 
ings of  wise  men  to  the  general  effect  that  women 
should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  kept  in  some  place 
that  has  a  lid  to  it.  The  favorite  German  novelist 
Auerbach,  for  instance,  puts  this  with  a  praiseworthy 
directness :  "  The  best  woman  is  she  of  whom  men 
speak  least.  I  understand  it  so  that  where  a  man 
speaks  of  a  woman  he  should  content  himself  with 
a  few  words.  He  should  say, '  She  is  an  intelligent, 
a  good,  a  domestic,  or  a  noble  woman.'  Qualify 
these  words,  and  the  strength  of  the  comment  is 
lost."  It  is  certain  that  in  saying  this  Auerbach 
speaks  the  spirit  of  his  nation.  He  says  it  gravely 
too,  and  docs  nothing  inconsistent  with  it,  being  in 
this  respect  more  fortunate  than  the  English  Arch- 
deacon Trench,  who  thoroughly  approves  the  Latin 
motto  as  applied  to  women,  Bene  vixit  gui  bene  la- 
tuit  ("  She  has  lived  well  who  has  kept  well  con- 
cealed "),  and  quotes  it  with  pride  in  a  preface  to 
a  very  thick  octavo  volume  containing  several  hun- 
dred of  his  mother's  most  private  letters. 

There  is  one  way  alone  in  which  men  have  been 


THE    SHADOW    OF   THE    HAREM.  15 

willing  to  see  any  amount  of  literary  or  artistic 
genius  developed  in  women— when  these  ladies  have 
consented  to  attribute  their  work  to  a  husband  or 
brother,  and  say  nothing  about  it.  This  is  the  self- 
effacement,  the  bene  latuit,  at  its  most  delightful 
point,  when  the  woman  does  the  work  and  the  man 
gets  the  fame.  The  Mendelssohn  family  had  not 
the  slightest  objection  to  their  gifted  Fanny's  com- 
posing as  much  music  as  she  pleased,  provided  it 
appeared  under  the  name  of  her  brother  Felix.  No- 
body knows,  the  recent  biographers  tell  us,  how 
many  of  his  "songs  without  words"  the  sister  con- 
tributed; but  the  moment  she  proposed  to  publish 
anything  under  her  own  name  the  whole  household 
was  aroused,  and  the  shadow  of  the  harem  was  in- 
voked;  it  was  improper,  unwomanly,  indelicate,  for 
her  to  publish  music — except  to  swell  her  brother's 
fame.  Mademoiselle  De  Scudery,  whose  intermi- 
nable novels  delighted  all  good  society  in  France  and 
England  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago,  printed  most 
of  her  fifty  volumes  under  the  name  jjf  her  brother. 
Charles  De  Scudery  undoubtedly  wrote  part  of  the 
books,  and  he  certainly  may  be  said  to  have  en- 
couraged his  sister  in  writing  them,  inasmuch  as  he 
used  to  lock  her  up  in  her  room  to  keep  her  at  it. 
But  he  never  seems  to  have  doubted  as  to  his  fra- 
ternal right  to  claim  them  all ;  and  he  once  drew  his 
sword  on  a  personal  friend  for  doubting  his  author- 


16  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

ship  of  "  Lc  Grand  Cyrus,"  a  novel  of  nearly  13,000 
pages,  of  which  it  is  naw  pretty  well  established  that 
the  sister  Avrote  the  whole. 

In  short,  the'  repressing  influence  has  not  consist- 
ed in  this  or  that  trivial  disadvantage,  but  in  the 
Oriental  theory  itself.  If  women  have  less  natural 
gift  than  men,  they  need  more  encouragement  and 
not  more  hinderance;  if  a  young  man  of  puny  ap- 
pearance comes  into  a  gymnasium,  he  is  not  invited 
to  exercise  with  his  hands  tied.  At  all  events,  for 
what  work  a  woman  does  she  is  entitled  to  credit, 
and  not  to  have  the  shadow  of  the  harem  invoked 
to  hush  up  her  existence  as  much  as  possible,  let- 
ting the  credit  go  to  some  one  else.  I  know  a  lady 
who,  when  a  child,  was  once  coaxed  by  her  elder 
brothers  to  climb  through  the  sliding-door  of  the 
pantry,  which  she  alone  was  small  enough  to  enter, 
and  to  bring  them  out  an  apronful  of  apples.  The 
elder  accomplices  then  carried  them  off  into  the 
orchard  and  devoured  them  without  leaving  her  a 
single  one.  If  art  and  authorship  in  women  be 
crimes,  like  stealing  apples,  men1  have  certainly  ad- 
justed the  rewards  and  penalties  somewhat  in  this 
way. 


IV. 
THE  WOMAN  OF  INFLUENCE. 

Mu.WoRTii,  the  eminent  Paris  dress-maker,  tele- 
graphs to  the  Boston  Sunday  Herald  that  the  great 
and  pressing  need  of  the  age  is  a  Woman  of  Influ- 
ence, somewhere  or  other,  to  set  the  fashions.  In 
default  of  this,  he  has,  after  exhausting  his  genius 
upon  a  new  dress,  to  use  various  indirect  devices  to 
bring  it  into  vogue.  If  one  thinks  what  a  beau- 
tiful work  of  art  a  lady's  dress  may  be,  when  wealth 
and  Worth  have  done  their  best  for  it,  and  what  an 
appalling  product  mere  wealth  without  taste  can 
develop  under  that  name,  one  may  well  give  a  sigh 
of  sympathy  to  this  man  of  genius  who  can  find  no 
woman  quite  worthy  of  his  scissors.  Yet  the  truth 
is  that  the  Woman  of  Influence  is  demanded  not 
alone  to  wear  clothes,  but  to  modify  and  control  all 
the  habits  of  society.  A  person  of  power,  of  indi- 
viduality, of  resources,  of  charm,  is  needed  in  every 
place  where  a  woman  stands,  and  is  not  to  be  had 
in  answer  to  an  advertisement.  "  What  we  want," 
said  a  certain  school  committee-man,  after  a  long  de- 
bate iu  our  committee  about  the  best  way  to  secure 
2 


18  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

a  competent  female  assistant  in  the  high-school — 
"  what  we  want,  gentlemen,  is  a  splendid  woman." 
This  was  at  once  accepted  by  all  as  a  complete 
formula  for  the  situation  ;  it  was  the  later  task  of 
actually  hunting  up  this  priceless  creature,  and  se- 
curing her  for  eight  hundred  dollars  a  year,  that 
proved  formidable. 

In  these  days  one  is  certainly  impressed  with  the 
prominence  of  literature  as  a  sphere  for  the  Wom- 
an of  Influence.  When  we  think  of  the  thousands 
of  high-schools  and  academies  throughout  the  land 
in  which,  next  graduation-day,  some  maiden  in  white 
will  read  an  essay  on  "  The  Genius  of  George  Eliot," 
we  may  well  say  with  Rufus  Choate,  "  After  all,  a 
book  is  the  only  immortality."  And  surely  the 
reader  is  impressed  with  the  way  in  which  a  wom- 
an's genius,  even  if  not  of  the  very  highest  order, 
may  retain  its  hold  after  her  death,  on  seeing  the 
late  statements  of  Mr.  Routledge,  the  great  publisher 
of  cheap  books  in  England,  as  to  the  continued  de- 
mand for  Mrs.  Ilcmans's  poetry.  In  the  last  gen- 
eration the  pure  and  melodious  muse  of  this  lady 
had  great  reputation  ;  her  American  editor  was  Pro- 
fessor Andrews  Norton,  father  of  the  present  Pro- 
fessor Charles  Eliot  Norton,  and  one  of  the  most 
cultivated  critics  of  his  day;  and  it  appears  from 
the  late  memoirs  of  Garrison  that  her  verses  were 
lonir  the  favorite  food  of  that  strong  and  heroic 


THE    WOMAN    OF   INFLUENCE.  19 

mind.  Yet  it  lias  been  the  custom  to  speak  of  her 
popularity  as  a  thing  of  the  past.  Now  arrives  Mr. 
Routlcdge,  and  gives  the  figures  as  to  his  sales  of 
the  different  poets  in  a  single  calendar  year.  First 
comes  Longfellow,  with  the  extraordinary  sale  of 
6000  copies;  then  we  drop  to  Scott,  with  3170 ; 
Shakespeare,  2700;  Byron,  2380;  Moore,  2276; 
Burns,  2250.  To  these  succeeds  Mrs.  Hemans,  with 
a  sale  of  1900  copies,  Milton  falling  short  of  her  by 
50,  and  no  one  else  showing  much  more  than  half 
that  demand.  Hood  had  980  purchasers,  Cowper, 
800,  and  all  others  less  ;  Shelley  had  500  and  Keats 
but  40.  Of  course  this  is  hardly  even  an  approxi- 
mate estimate  of  the  comparative  popularity  of  these 
poets,  since  much  would  depend,  for  instance,  on  the 
multiplicity  or  value  of  rival  editions  ;  but  it  proves 
in  a  general  way  that  Mrs.  Hemans  holds  her  own, 
in  point  of  readers,  fifty  years  after  her  death. 
What  other  form  of  influence  for  man  or  woman 
equals  this? 

Yet  there  are  many  other  modes  of  action.  That 
of  Florence  Nightingale,  for  instance,  modestly  vin- 
dicating a  woman's  foresight  against  the  dulness 
and  red  tape  of  a  whole  War  Department,  and  re- 
turning from  the  most  superb  career  of  public  serv- 
ice that  ever  woman  had,  with  ruined  health,  but 
with  such  universal  love  and  reverence  from  the 
Crimean  army  that  a  statue  would  have  been  erected 


20  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

to  her  by  a  penny  subscription  had  she  not  refused 
it.  That  of  Clara  Barton,  or  Dorothea  Dix,  or  Mary 
Livcrmore,  or  Jean  Lander,  or  Mother  Bickerdyke, 
in  oiir  own  civil  war.  That  of  many  a  worker  in 
the  Associated  Charities  of  our  large  cities,  or  of 
those  special  organizations  which  were  almost  al- 
ways carried  on,  thirty  years  ago,  under  the  official 
leadership  and  treasurership  of  men,  but  which  have 
been  steadily  falling,  more  and  more,  during  that 
period,  into  the  hands  of  women.  That  of  many  a 
woman  of  society,  so  called,  who  recognizes  in  "  so- 
ciety "  itself  a  sphere  for  conscientious  duty  —  so 
that  the  tone  of  a  whole  town  or  city  may  some- 
times be  said  to  be  kept  up  or  let  down  according 
as  the  leading  "  society  woman  "  is  a  person  of  char- 
acter or  a  doll.  That  of  many  a  woman  in  some 
log-cabin  on  the  frontier,  whose  society  consists  in 
a  dozen  children  of  her  own  and  perhaps  two  or 
three  more  taken  in  from  charity;  the  woman  who, 
nameless  and  noteless,  maintains  that  average  qual- 
ity among  our  American  people  which  can  always  be 
relied  upon  to  send  from  obscurity  a  Lincoln  or  a 
Grant  in  time  of  imminent  need.  Beyond  all  these, 
perhaps,  in  total  influence  ranks  the  great  army  of 
women  teachers,  spreading  their  unseen  and  daily 
labors  through  every  school  district  from  Cape  Cod 
to  the  Golden  Gate ;  smoothing  the  waste  places, 
equalizing  all  our  civilization,  doing  the  most  for  the 


THE    WOMAN    OF    INFLUENCE.  21 

poorest:  ;ind  again,  in  the  upper  regions  of  educa- 
tion, rising  into  the  work  of  such  missionaries  of 
the  highest  training  as  Mary  Lyori  in  the  past,  or 
Alice  Freeman  in  the  present.  Compared  with 
these  lives,  how  petty  seem  the  little  struggles  for 
position  and  etiquette?  In  what  lingering  child- 
ishness does  the  most  exalted  womanhood  of  Eu- 
rope seem  still  to  be  involved  when  we  read  in  the 
telegraphic  headings,  "Great  indignation  of  Queen 
Victoria,"  and  find  that  this  excitement  relates,  not 
to  the  tremendous  Irish  problem  and  the  threatened 
dismemberment  of  her  empire,  but  to  the  hesitation 
of  certain  courts  of  Europe  to  accord  to  Prince 
Henry  Somcthing-or-other,  her  latest  son-in-law,  the 
title  of  "  His  Koyal  Highness !" 


V. 
THE  SWING  OF  THE  SOCIAL  PENDULUM. 

THE  newspapers  are  constantly  satirizing  a  ten- 
dency to  Anglomania  which  is  said  to  prevail  just 
now  in  American  society,  or  at  least  in  a  few  cities 
and  watering-places  along  the  Atlantic  shore.  It 
is  not  habitually  mentioned  that  this  is  but  a  swing 
of  the  same  pendulum  which  seemed,  twenty  years 
ago,  to  be  swinging  the  other  way,  and  carrying  us 
away  from  everything  English  and  towards  every- 
thing French.  The  same  pendulum  has  been  stead- 
ily vibrating,  indeed,  ever  since  the  foundation  of 
our  government,  and  its  movements  have  never  had 
any  great  or  important  influence  upon  the  mass  of 
the  American  people.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  per- 
fectly certain  that  the  whim  in  fashion  thirty  and 
even  twenty  years  ago  was  quite  unlike  what  it  now 
is.  Good  Americans  were  said,  when  they  died,  to 
go  to  Paris,  and  even  the  wit  of  Tom  Appleton  nev- 
er ventured  to  suggest  that  they  should  go  to  Lon- 
don. At  Newport  it  was  for  many  years  held  es- 
sential to  do  things  in  the  French  way,  not  the 
English.  It  was  at  the  French  court  that  fashion- 


THE    SWING    OF   THE    SOCIAL    PENDULUM.      23 

able  Americans  yearned  to  be  presented ;  they  uni- 
formly preferred  to  live  on  the  other  side  of  the 
English  Channel ;  and  I  remember  to  have  had  this 
explained  to  me  by  a  man  of  some  fashion,  on  the 
ground  that  if  an  ambitious  American  family  lived 
in  Paris  they  were  not  vexed  at  being  omitted  from 
this  or  that  entertainment  of  the  nobility ;  whereas 
in  England,  where  their  own  language  was  spoken, 
that  sort  of  omission  chafed  them  far  more.  The 
reason  thus  assigned  may  have  been  flimsy,  but  the 
fact  recognized  was  important ;  it  indicated  a  period 
when  French  standards,  not  English,  prevailed  in 
our  more  fashionable  society.  The  change  coin- 
cided with  the  fall  of  the  French  Empire.  While 
that  prevailed,  it  was  the  smile  of  the  emperor,  not 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  which  gave  distinction  and 
currency  to  a  society  belle.  There  is  not  much 
gained,  perhaps,  by  the  substitution  of  one  roue  for 
another,  as  the  arbiter  of  manners  for  our  young 
people;  but  it  is  something  to  know  that  it  is  only 
a  temporary  swing  of  the  pendulum  after  all. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  Anglomania  is  con- 
fined among  us  to  a  limited  class,  and  to  certain 
very  limited  pursuits  and  interests  of  that  class. 
It  does  not  exist,  for  instance,  among  our  men  of 
science,  inasmuch  as  they  go  to  Germany  in  shoals 
for  study,  and  rarely  visit  England  since  the  death 
of  Darwin.  It  is  not  now  charged  upon  our  liter- 


24  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

ary  men,  since  the  death  of  Richard  Grant  White, 
who  was,  moreover,  as  ardently  anti-English  in  some 
directions  as  he  was  vehemently  English  in  others. 
It  is  not  found  in  our  journalism,  which  aspires  to 
lead  the  English,  and  actually  leads  it  in  enterprise, 
while  falling  behind  it  in  evenness. of  execution  and 
in  the  minor  proprieties  of  life.  It  is  not  to  be 
found  in  our  public-school  system  or  in  our  college 
systems,  for  these,  where  they  are  not  American,  are 
German.  It  is  not  found  in  our  library  methods, 
for  in  the  librarians'  conventions  of  the  last  few 
years  Americans  have  led  and  not  followed.  Even 
when  we  come  on  more  intimate  and  domestic 
ground,  limitations  still  exist.  Our  standard  of 
cookery,  so  far  as  we  have  any,  is  French  and  not 
English.  No  American  lady  would  wish  to  be 
charged  with  dressing  like  an  English  woman,  and 
no  American  man,  when  travelling  anywhere  but  in 
England,  would  wisli  to  be  taken  for  an  English- 
man, for  the  simple  reason  that  Americans  are  ev- 
erywhere so  much  more  popular.  Nor  would  any 
one  of  our  own  countrymen  desire  to  be  said  to 
speak  foreign  languages  like  an  Englishman.  Even 
in  our  amusements  there  exists  a  similar  limitation. 
In  yachting  the  interest  is  in  the  American  type  of 
yachts ;  as  to  horse-racing,  mainly  in  the  American 
breed  of  trotting-horses ;  our  college  students  com- 
pete in  base-ball,  rarely  in  cricket;  and  almost  all 


Til  12    SWING    OF   THE    SOCIAL    PENDULUM.      25 

the  prizes  won  by  our  bicyclists  are  won  on  Amer- 
ican machines. 

The  key  to  this  alleged  Anglomania,  therefore,  is 
simply  this :  that  the  American  habit  of  mind  is  es- 
sentially cosmopolitan,  and  goes  to  each  nation  for 
that  which  it  finds  best  of  its  kind.  As  unerringly 
as  it  goes  to  Germany  for  its  scientific  instruction, 
or  to  France  for  its  cooks,  so  it  goes  to  England  for 
what  is  not  so  well  to  be  found  in  France  or  Ger- 
many— the  minor  conveniences  and  facilities  which 
belong  to  a  highly  trained  leisure  class.  Itself  new- 
ly developed,  this  American  class  turns  to  England 
for  a  good  standard  of  minor  essentials,  as  horse 
equipments  and  coachmen's  clothes.  It  borrows 
more  than  these ;  it  borrows  those  accessaries  of 
high-bred  life  which  promote  daily  comfort  and 
convenience,  the  organization  of  a  large  household, 
the  routine  of  social  life.  In  these  directions  Eng- 
land is  very  strong,  though  it  may  be  doubted  if 
this  is  the  highest  sphere ;  if  it  can  be  set  against 
the  dignity  of  the  best  Spanish  or  Italian  manners, 
the  keenness  of  French  wit,  and  the  depth  and  so- 
lidity of  German  knowledge.  These  also  are  fully 
appreciated  among  us,  but  their  traces  do  not  lie  so 
much  on  the  surface.  All  these  things,  so  far  as 
we  can,  we  borrow  ;  why  not  ?  If  older  nations  bor- 
row from  one  another,  why  not  younger  from  older? 
It  is  no  discredit  to  England  that  her  one  high  phi- 


26  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

lological  authority,  Max  Miiller,  is  a  German,  and 
that  her  one  humorous  periodical — in  America  ev- 
ery newspaper  is  humorous — still  bears  trace  of  its 
French  origin  in  the  title,  Punch,  or  the  London 
Charivari.  The  English  journals  are  constantly 
pointing  out  that  their  own  people  are  becoming 
Americanized ;  why,  then,  should  not  an  American 
here  or  there  be  Anglicized?  It  is  pretty  certain 
all  the  while  that  we  are  exerting  far  more  influence 
than  we  receive. 

Let  us  not  disturb  ourselves.  Out  of  the  fifty 
millions  of  Americans,  the  passing  wave  of  Anglo- 
mania or  Francomania  reaches  but  a  few  thousands, 
and  merely  touches  those  on  the  surface.  Even  the 
young  men  whom  it  reaches  are  at  heart  good  Amer- 
icans, and  if  another  civil  war  or  foreign  war  arose, 
would  respond  as  promptly  as  they  did  in  1861. 
They  will  doubtless  buy  their  clothes  in  England 
while  these  can  be  bought  there  more  cheaply  and 
of  better  material ;  they  will  employ  English  grooms 
or  Scotch  gardeners  if  these  do  their  work  better. 
But  so  long  as  monarchy  and  hereditary  aristocracy 
exist  in  England — and  I  fear  that  they  will  last  our 
time — there  will  be  an  essential  and  ineradicable 
difference  in  the  habits  of  mind  of  English  and 
American  young  men ;  and  this  will  show  itself  in 
their  whole  feeling  as  to  caste,  as  to  labor,  as  to  self- 
respect.  And  since  climate  and  institutions  arc 


THE    SWING    OP   THE    SOCIAL   PENDULUM.      27 

constantly  tending  to  produce  a  physical  difference 
also,  there  seems  every  prospect  that  Englishmen 
and  Americans  will  be  farther  apart,  instead  of  near- 
er, fifty  years  hence  than  now.  After  that,  perhaps, 
they  will  begin  to  assimilate. 


VI. 
THE  CREATOR  OF  THE  HOME. 

THERE  took  place  lately  near  my  house  two  of 
those  instantaneous  deaths  which  are  commonly 
called  tragic,  but  which  seem  to  me  the  most  envia- 
ble mode  of  passing  away  from  earth.  Two  maid- 
en ladies  had  for  many  years  led  their  blameless 
lives  together  in  a  modest  cottage  quaintly  situated 
in  the  sharp  angle  of  two  streets,  and  made  pict- 
uresque in  summer  by  the  flowers  and  vines  that 
were  devoutly  tended  by  its  occupants.  They  had 
long  eked  out  their  modest  income  by  taking  a  few 
boarders,  and  had  by  simple  kindliness  made  their 
house  as  genuine  a  home  to  many  other  persons  as 
to  themselves.  As  years  grew  upon  them  this  care 
was  laid  aside,  and  they  dwelt  quietly  together.  One 
day  last  week  one  of  them  was  taken  to  drive  by  a 
young  girl,  a  relative.  She  took  with  her  a  pet  dog. 
In  some  way  the  dog  almost  fell  out.  The  old  lady 
leaned  forward  suddenly  to  save  him.  The  motion 
brought  on  palpitation  of  the  heart,  and  she  died 
without  a  struggle.  The  news  was  swiftly  carried 
to  her  home,  where  the  shock  produced  a  similar 


THE  CREATOR  OF  THE  HOME.        29 

effect  upon  the  other  sister,  and  was  almost  as  sud- 
denly fatal.  In  each  case  it  scarcely  seemed  like 
death,  but  like  the  sundering  of  some  exquisitely 
delicate  cord. 

"  We  scarce  could  say,  She  died  ; 
So  sweetly  anchored  on  the  other  side." 

In  thinking  on  this  sudden  extinction  of  a  house- 
hold, my  thoughts  have  often  turned  back  upon 
the  fact  of  that  household  itself;  how  complete  it 
was,  how  contented,  how  serene,  and  how  thoroughly 
feminine.  After  all,  let  men  boast  as  much  as  they 
please,  and  women  complain  as  much,  there  is  one 
immense  advantage  in  the  position  of  women — that 
they  can  create  a  home  for  themselves  unaided,  as 
men  can  not.  How  independent  seems  the  life 
of  a  young  unmarried  man  compared  to  that  of  a 
young  woman  !  How  the  sister  usually  envies  the 
brother!  But  by  a  silent  compensation  in  nature, 
as  years  advance,  the  balance  changes,  and  if  they 
are  left  alone  in  the  world  it  is  the  brother  who 
has  reason  to  envy  the  sister.  "  A  bachelor's  life," 
says  some  one,  "  is  a  splendid  breakfast,  a  tolera- 
bly flat  dinner,  and  a  most  miserable  supper."  A 
single  man  may  have  an  estate,  a  principality  ;  lie 
can  own  a  great  hotel  and  fill  it  with  guests;  but 
he  cannot  create  a  home  without  a  woman  tg  help 
him,  and  that,  too,  a  woman  whose  service  is  not  for 


30  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

money.  When  it  comes  to  a  home,  there  is  not  a 
solitary  dress-maker  in  the  land,  ensconced  in  her 
one  little  room  with  her  geraniums,  her  canary,  and 
her  sewing-machine,  who  cannot  completely  eclipse 
him,  this  being  the  result  not  of  his  sins,  but  of  his 
sex. 

Undoubtedly  each  reader  will  think,  or  try  to 
think,  of  some  exception  to  all  this — some  single 
man  who  is  happy,  some  "jolly  bachelor,"  some 
cheerful  widower.  No  doubt  there  are  those  who 
can  be  happy,  especially  during  the  first  half  of  life, 
without  the  sense  of  home.  A,  with  his  wealth,  arid 
his  paintings,  and  his  yachts,  and  his  delightful  mon- 
ologue ;  13,  with  his  perpetual  journeyings ;  C,  with 
his  six  dogs;  and  our  late  Professor  Sophocles  in 
Cambridge,  with  that  family  of  hens  which  he  tend- 
ed, like  a  herdsman,  with  a  long  staff,  and  which  he 
trained  to  take  food  from  stakes  placed  upright  in 
the  ground  instead  of  scratching  in  the  flower-beds 
— all  these  may  doubtless  have  found  a  bachelor 
life  not  inconsistent  with  happiness ;  but  where, 
after  all,  is  the  home  ?  Neither  yachts,  nor  pictures, 
nor  steamer  tickets,  nor  dogs,  nor  hens  can  supply 
that.  "Home,"  says  the  proverb,  "  is  where  the 
heart  is ;"  but  if  so,  no  man  seems  to  have  heart 
enough  to  fit  out  a  home  without  a  woman  to  help 
him.  .  A  woman  can  do  it  for  herself :  there  lies 
her  advantage. 


THE  CREATOR  OF  THE  HOME.        31 

It  may  be  harder  for  a  woman  to  make  mon- 
ey ;  undoubtedly  it  is  harder.  She  makes  a  dollar, 
perhaps,  where  a  man  makes  twenty ;  but  when 
it  comes  to  purchasing  power,  her  dollar  goes  the 
farthest  towards  the  maintenance  of  a  home.  So 
long  as  she  retains  that,  she  is  strong  and  self-respect- 
ing; and  even  if  she  parts  with  it,  so  strong  is  the 
instinct  of  home  that  she  can  sometimes  reconstruct 
it  for  herself  even  in  a  boarding-house.  If  the 
home  is  combined  with  a  little  freedom  in  the  use  of 
money,  it  gives  more  comfort  and  more  local  pres- 
tige than  a  lone  man  can  win  by  a  fortune.  What 
would  be  the  social  condition  of  any  country  village 
in  our  Atlantic  States  without  its  first-class  Maiden 
Lady?  She  is  the  daughter  of  "old  Squire"  some- 
body, or  of  "Parson"  somebody  else;  she  lives  in 
the  great  square  house  with  its  elms,  and  its  white 
lilacs,  and  its  breezy  hall ;  she  has  a  maid  or  two, 
who  have  lived  with  her  so  long  that  they  seem 
like  half-sisters;  she  has  in  daily  use  the  precious 
china  and  the  old  chairs  that  her  envious  city  nieces 
try  vainly  to  rival  at  auction-rooms.  She  manages 
the  book  club  and  the  church  sociable ;  she  is  the 
confidante  of  all  the  love  affairs ;  she  calls  upon  the 
new-comers,  if  worthy — indeed,  the  new-comers,  if 
worthy,  bring  letters  to  her.  To  the  older  inhabitants 
of  the  town  she  always  seems  young  and  elegant; 
she  has  a  prolonged  tradition  of  precedence  that 


32  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

outlasts  youth  and  beauty ;  if  she  has  a  sister,  they 
are  spoken  of  to  the  end  of  their  days  as  "  the  Par- 
ker girls."  All  this  is  the  joint  result  of  womanhood 
and  home,  or  of  that  womanhood  which  creates 
home.  It  is  not  only  potent  for  itself,  but  it  extends 
its  potency  over  all  other  homes.  What,  compared 
to  this,  is  the  social  position  given  by  wealth  to  the 
lonely  old  bachelor  of  the  country  village?  Though 
he  be  a  millionaire,  he  is  simply  "the  old  bach." 

The  truth  is  that  as  people  grow  older  it  is  the 
man  who  becomes  dependent,  and  the  woman  the 
central  and  essential  figure  of  the  household,  since 
she  can  do  without  him,  and  he  cannot  do  with- 
out her.  The  proof  of  this  lies  in  the  fact  that  we 
see  all  around  us  self-sufficing  and  contented  house- 
holds of  women,  while  a  house  that  contains  men 
only  is  a  barrack,  not  a  home.  In  youth  it  is  easy 
to  ignore  this,  to  say  with  Shakespeare  in  "  Henry 

V," 

"  "Tis  ever  common 
That  men  are  merriest  when  away  from  home ;" 

but  the  merriment  is  shallow,  the  laugh  is  forced, 
and  years  and  illness  and  sorrow  soon  bring  man 
back,  a  repentant  prodigal,  to  his  home  and  to 
woman,  the  only  home-maker. 


VII. 
VACATIONS   FOR  SAINTS. 

"  IT  is  so  tiresome,"  said  once  a  certain  lady  of 
my  acquaintance,  "  to  be  a  saint  all  the  time ! 
There  ought  to  be  vacations."  And  as  it  was  once 
my  pleasant  lot  to  be  the  house-mate  of  a  saint 
when  enjoying  one  of  these  seasons  of  felicity,  I 
know  what  my  friend  meant  by  it.  The  saint  in 
question  was  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  and  un- 
questionable of  her  class ;  she  was  the  wife  of  a 
country  clergyman,  a  woman  of  superb  physique, 
great  personal  attractiveness,  and  the  idol  of  her 
husband's  large  parish,  from  oldest  to  youngest.  I 
had  always  supposed  it  to  be  mere  play  for  her  to 
be  a  saint,  but  you  could  see  what  her  life  in  that 
direction  had  cost  her  by  the  way  she  took  her  va- 
cation, as  you  know  how  the  bow  has  been  bent 
when  you  see  the  motion  of  the  arrow.  Off  from 
her  shapely  shoulders  fell  the  whole  world  of  min- 
isters' meetings,  and  missionary  meetings,  and  moth- 
ers' meetings.  I  do  not  know  why  they  all  begin 
with  an  m,  unless  it  is  because  that  letter,  by  its 
very  shape,  best  designates  that  which  is  rcitcrat- 
3 


34  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

ed  and  interminable.  Be  that  as  it  may,  they  all 
dropped  from  her;  and  she  danced  about  the  halls 
of  her  girlhood,  the  gayest  of  the  gay.  How  in- 
dignantly she  declined  the  offer  of  a  ticket  to  a 
certain  very  instructive  historical  lecture!  "Do  not 
offer  rne  anything  intellectual,"  she  indignantly  said, 
"on  a  week  like  this.  If  you  have  a  ticket  to  any- 
thing improper,  bring  me  that.  I  think  I  should 
like  to  see  the  'Black  Crook  !'  "  It  appeared,  upon 
inquiry,  that  she  had  never  witnessed  that  perform- 
ance, and  had  only  a  general  impression  that  it  was 
a  little  naughty.  But  the  proposal  certainly  indi- 
cated a  kind  of  "  Saints'  Rest"  which  would  greatly 
have  amazed  Mr.  Richard  Baxter. 

The  present  writer,  never  having  been  a  saint, 
cannot  speak  from  personal  experience ;  but  his 
sympathies  are  often  thoroughly  aroused  for  those 
who  belong  to  this  neglected  class.  It  is  a  shame 
not  to  recognize  needs  like  theirs.  Why  do  we  all 
spend  our  strength  on  organizing  Country  Weeks  in 
summer  for  people  who  need  to  get  out  of  the  city, 
and  not  also  undertake  City  Weeks  in  winter  for 
people  who  need  to  get  into  the  city  ?  Why  for- 
ever preach  "  plain  living  and  high  thinking,"  when 
so  many  persons  would  be  benefited  by  any  kind  of 
living,  if  it  could  only  be  combined  with  no  thinking 
at  all  ?  These  clergymen's  wives,  with  all  the  needs 
and  hopes  and  fears  and  cares  and  woes  of  a  him- 


VACATIONS   FOR   SAINTS.  35 

dred  families  heaped  vicariously  on  their  devoted 
heads,  to  say  nothing  of  looking  after  the  white 
cravats,  and  the  digestion,  and  the  weekly  sermons 
of  the  reverend  spouse ;  these  farmers'  wives,  with 
twenty  hungry  haymakers  for  whom  to  make  pies 
in  summer,  and  the  milk  of  twenty  cows  to  be  cared 
for  all  the  year  round ;  these  widows,  who  have 
"  known  better  days,"  but  have  never  yet  known 
a  worse  day  than  that  on  which  they  first  under- 
took to  make  a  living  by  keeping  boarders  ;  these 
elder  sisters,  who  sit  up  half  the  night  writing  sto- 
ries for  the  newspapers  in  order  that  their  only 
brother  may  go  to  college  and  learn  to  play  foot- 
ball— can  any  human  being  conjecture  a  work  more 
beneficent  than  to  organize  a  society  to  provide  va- 
cations for  such  as  these  ?  Yet  nobody  attempts  it. 
Supposing  this  indifference  to  be  surmounted, 
and  a  society  established  to  supply  saints  with  va- 
cations, what  kind  of  edifices  would  it  need?  Per- 
haps like  those  of  rich  Jews  in  mediaeval  cities, 
humble  and  unpretending  without — for  the  purpose, 
in  this  case,  of  warding  off  book-peddlers  and  sub- 
scription-agents— but  full  of  lavish  delights  within. 
Like  some  of  the  old  Jewish  abodes  in  Frankfort, 
they  should  be  difficult  of  access,  and  approachable 
only  by  winding  passages  full  of  pitfalls.  Yet  they 
should  be  near  to  sunny  thoroughfares,  and  be  well 
furnished  with  windows  through  which  glimpses  of 


36  WOMEN    AND   MEN.     ' 

the  gay  world  should  be  seen.  If  it  were  necessary 
to  designate  these  houses  in  any  public  way,  they 
should  be  covered  with  warning  mottoes:  "Rest 
Cure  for  Saints !  No  Sympathy  given  away  !  No 
Committee  Meetings  held  here  !  No  Cause  need  ap- 
ply !  Domestic  and  Foreign  Missions  carefully  ex- 
cluded!" They  should  be  furnished  with  no  door- 
bells; or  else  these  bells  should  be  adjusted,  like 
those  you  see  at  Safety  Deposit  Vaults,  to  summon 
the  whole  police  force  at  a  touch,  for  the  protection 
of  the  treasures  within.  What  deposit  vaults,  though 
they  held  millions,  are  so  precious  as  the  walls  that 
are  to  guard  our  saints  in  their  vacations  ? 

Within  these  abodes  a  variety  of  spiritual  nervines 
and  anodynes  might  be  applied.  Goethe  recom- 
mends to  people  in  health  that  they  should  every 
day  read  a  good  poem,  hear  a  good  piece  of  music, 
and  if  it  be  possible — mark  the  consideratencss  of 
that  suggestion — speak  a  few  sensible  words.  In 
the  Rest  Cure  for  Saints  the  first  two  prescriptions 
may  be  applicable,  but  the  last  should  be  very 
guardedly  administered.  Some  tolerably  somnolent 
nonsense — for  instance,  extracts  from  the  last  Eng- 
lish tourist's  book  about  America — would  be  far 
better.  To  be  sure,  different  cases  would  require 
different  treatment.  In  mild  instances  a  punning 
brother  might  be  a  sufficient  alterative  for  the  nerv- 
ous tension  of  a  too  useful  life.  Others  might  be 


VACATIONS    FOE   SAINTS.  37 

reached  by  readings  from  Mark  Twain  or  "  Alice's 
Adventures  in  Wonderland."  For  convalescents  able 
to  go  out-of-doors,  a  Dime  Show  with  the  Seven 
Long-haired  Sisters  might  be,  as  physicians  say, 
"  exhibited ;"  or  a  comic  theatre,  to  bear  at  first,  of 
course,  the  disinfecting  name  of  Museum.  Indeed, 
it  is  of  less  consequence  what  spiritual  anodyne  is 
applied  than  that  it  should  suit  the  sufferer;  as 
Hippocrates  holds  that  the  second-best  remedy  is 
better  than  the  best,  if  the  patient  likes  it  best. 

No  doubt  th<J  price  of  a  vacation,  particularly  for 
saints,  is  perpetual  vigilance.  The  force  of  habit  is 
very  great,  and  those  who  most  need  rest  from  their 
daily  mission  will  require  constant  watchfulness  lest 
they  relapse  into  good  works.  The  taste  for  serving 
on  committees,  in  particular,  is  like  the  taste  for 
blood,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  overcome  it;  the 
utmost  that  can  be  secured  is  temporary  removal 
from  danger.  The  patient  may  break  from  the 
keepers  at  any  time,  and  be  found  ascending  some 
stairway  in  search  of  some  "  Central  Office,"  or  other 
headquarters  of  dangerous  philanthropy.  After  all, 
there  is  probably  no  complete  vacation  for  over- 
worked saints  except  an  ocean  voyage.  True,  they 
may  be  sea-sick,  but  even  that  may  have  its  mission. 
For  the  real  object  of  the  whole  enterprise  is  to  in- 
duce our  saint  to  be  a  little  selfish ;  and  if  even  the 
pangs  of  sea-sickness  fail  to  bring  about  that  result, 
nothing  else  ever  will,  and  the  case  is  incurable. 


VIII. 
MAIDEN  AUNTS. 

THAT  admirable  patriot,  John  A.  Andrew,  the  War 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  was  emphatically  a  man 
of  impulses,  and  he  never  used  a  phrase  more  impul- 
sive and  more  questionable  than  when,  in  speaking  of 
the  single  women  of  his  own  State,  he  characterized 
many  of  them  as  being  "anxious  and  aimless."  He 
did  not  mean  the  remark  as  ungenerous,  but  it  was 
founded  on  a  common  error  that  has  since  been  dis- 
proved. In  his  time  it  was  generally  assumed  that 
the  great  plurality  of  women  over  men  in  some  of 
our  older  States  was  due  to  an  inconvenient  excess 
of  "  single  sisters ;"  and  it  was  not  till  Colonel  Car- 
roll D.  Wright  took,  with  his  accustomed  thorough- 

£j  '  ~ 

ness,  the  Massachusetts  census  of  1875  that  the 
disproportion  was  found  really  to  lie  not  among 
single  women,  but  among  widows.  His  figures  are 
as  follows,  when  he  analyzes  the  whole  into  its  parts  : 

Excess  of  single  women  in  Massachusetts 8,9TS 

Excess  of  married  women 1,785 

Excess  of  widowed  women 52,903 

Excess  of  divorced  women SIT 

Total  excess  of  women 64,483 

Deduct  excess  of  men  over  women  iu  class  "unknown"..  1,331 

Net  excess  of  women 63,140* 

*  Mass.  Census,  1875,  p.  33. 


MAIDEN   AUNTS.  39 

The  small  excess  of  married  women  includes  those 
whose  husbands  are  for  some  reason  residing  in 
other  States  or  who  have  been  deserted.  The  ex- 
cess of  single  women,  which  is  small  for  a  State  of 
more  than  a  million  and  a  half  of  people,  is  due  in 
part  to  the  families  where  the  brothers  "go  West" 
and  the  sisters  stay  at  home,  but  fur  more  to  the 
factory  system  of  the  State,  which  is  always  import- 
ing young  women  from  beyond  the  borders.  The 
main  discrepancy  lies  in  the  vast  preponderance  of 
\\idows  over  widowers,  there  being  in  Massachusetts 
73,527  of  the  former,  and  only  20,624  of  the  latter. 
This,  again,  is  due  to  several  causes:  the  great  an- 
nual losses  of  life  in  seaport  towns,  the  factory  sys- 
tem again,  and  the  natural  tendency  of  women  left 
widowed  to  return  to  the  home  of  their  youth.  At 
any  rate,  these  facts  make  short  work  of  the  "  anx- 
ious and  aimless"  theory,  since  no  widow  can  be- 
long to  the  latter  class,  at  least  if  she  has  chil- 
dren. Indeed,  the  statistics  leave  it  an  open  ques- 
tion whether  the  supply  of  spinsters  is  in  any 
of  our  States  sufficient — whether  we  do  not  suffer 
from  a  deficit  rather  than  from  an  excess  of  maiden 
aunts. 

To  decide  this  question  we  must  remember  that 
there  is  in  any  community  an  immense  and  constant 
demand  for  this  class.  They  are  the  natural  stop- 
gaps, the  flying  buttresses,  the  emergency  lectures, 


40  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

of  all  families.  When  in  difficulty,  you  send  for  a 
maiden  aunt.  When  the  mother  is  ill  at  home,  and 
the  governess  is  in  the  hospital,  and  the  nurse's  third 
cousin  has  died,  so  that  she  must  spend  several  days 
in  going  to  the  funeral,  then  it  is  that  telegrams  fly 
in  all  directions  for  maiden  aunts.  It  is  a  wonder 
that  there  arc  no  special  blanks  ready  with  the 
proper  addresses  at  the  telegraph-offices,  and  par- 
ticular stamped  envelopes  at  post-offices,  "  For  Miss 
,  maiden  aunt  at  ;  to  be  delivered  in- 
stantly." Sometimes  there  is  an  especial  maiden 
aunt  to  whom  a  whole  town  turns,  as  in  James  T. 
Fields's  story,  where  the  country  boy  who  had  fallen 
into  n  well,  and  whom  the  collected  ladders  and 
ropes  of  the  neighborhood  could  not  extract,  was 
heard  shouting  from  the  depths  of  the  earth,  "  Why 
don't  you  send  for  Miss  Kent,  you  fools?1'  The  ar- 
rival of  Miss  Kent  set  everything  working  smoothly  ; 
and  so  it  always  is  when  maiden  aunts  arrive.  The 
lady  from  Philadelphia,  in  Miss  Lucretia  llale's 
"Petcrkin "  stories,  who  always  got  that  luckless 
family  out  of  all  perplexities,  was  unquestionably  a 
maiden  aunt.  The  party  stranded  in  mid-air,  in 
Howells's  "  Elevator,"  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
rescued  by  a  maiden  aunt  had  not  the  author — with 
his  well-known  severity  towards  women — shut  up 
his  aunt  Mary  in  the  elevator  itself,  where  she  could 
only  request  her  silly  niece  not  to  be  a  goose.  Even 


MAIDEN    AUNTS.  41 

in  tins,  we  perceive,  is  the  utility  of  maiden  aunts 
vindicated. 

It  might  seem,  as  we  look  around  at  these  price- 
less relatives,  as  if  there  were  a  good  many  of  them 
in  the  world,  but  in  reality  there  arc  far  too  few. 
Their  ranks  are  so  easily  depicted,  also,  by  the  pos- 
sibilities of  illness,  school-keeping,  foreign  travel,  or 
matrimony  that  there  are  seldom  enough  of  them 
at  hand  in  any  family.  It  is  said  that  young  men 
are  growing  dilatory  about  marriage,  and  this  is,  if 
true,  a  blessing  in  disguise ;  for  what  would  be- 
come of  us  if  all  the  maiden  aunts  were  married, 
and  had  to  look  round  in  vain  for  other  maiden 
aunts  to  help  take  care  of  their  babies?  Consider 
how  many  aunts  a  single  baby  needs:  with  what 
devouring  rapidity  these  exhausting  little  creatures 
will  use  up  one  after  another — in  times  of  teething, 
for  instance — till  it  seems  as  if  only  a  very  large 
old-fashioned  family  could  supply  aunts  enough  to 
go  round.  Illness  makes  a  demand  for  aunts  ;  tem- 
porary absences  make  room  for  them ;  they  are 
needed  w4ien  company  is  to  be  received,  presents 
are  to  be  made,  new  curtains  to  be  decided  upon, 
the  family  dress-making  to  be  attended  to ;  when, 
in  short,  are  they  not  needed  ?  Indeed,  they  are 
sometimes  supposed  to  exist  merely  to  "  accommo- 
date," as  the  phrase  is  at  intelligence-offices  for  a 
temporary  supply ;  and  there  is  sometimes  as  much 


42  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

outcry  in  a  large  family  when  a  maiden  aunt  vent- 
ures to  be  married  as  if  she  had  taken  a  vow  of 
celibacy  in  early  life. 

No !  the  maiden  aunts  of  this  rough  world  are 
not  anxiolis  and  aimless ;  they  are  the  salt  of  the 
earth,  and,  like  the  salt  described  in  the  little  boy's 
composition,  they  are  something  that  makes  the 
world  taste  badly  when  there  is  nothing  of  them  in 
it.  They  are  never  too  numerous  ;  indeed,  they  are 
never  quite  numerous  enough.  The  bounteous  Irish 
woman  in  "Rudder  Grange"  thinks  that  it  must  be 
very  lonesome  in  a  house  with  only  one  baby;  and 
that  household  must  also  be  lonesome  that  does  not 
have  within  a  six-mile  radius  at  least  three  or  four 
maiden  aunts.  But  it  must  be  confessed  that  this 
propinquity  is  sometimes  rather  hard  upon  the  aunts. 


IX. 

ON  ONE'S  RELATIONSHIP  TO  ONE'S 
MOTHER. 

THOSE  who  recall  the  days  when  Artcmns  Ward 
gave  lectures  may  remember  how  lie  glided  from  be- 
hind the  curtain  noiselessly,  dressed  in  solemn  black, 
looking  like  a  juvenile  undertaker,  and  proceeded 
without  a  smile  to  crack  the  gravest  jokes  over  the 
head  of  his  young  pianist.  This  tuneful  youth,  he 
explained,  was  paid  five  dollars  a  week  "and  his 
washing,"  and  he  was  thoroughly  domestic  in  his 
style  of  playing,  having  even  composed  those  touch- 
ing melodies  of  home  life,  "Is  it  raining,  mother 
dear,  in  South  Boston  ?"  and  "  Mother,  you  are  one  of 
my  parents !"  Now,  if  there  ever  was  anything  that 
might  be  called  a  self-evident  proposition,  it  is  this 
last,  and  yet  it  is  certain  that  from  Greek  days  to 
the  present  time  the  din  of  discussion  has  raged 
around  it,  and  it  has  been  habitually  denied  by  large 
sections  of  the  human  race.  Indeed,  it  is  very  prob- 
able that  practices  now  prevailing  among  the  most 
enlightened  nations — as,  for  instance,  the  transmis- 
sion of  the  father's,  not  the  mother's,  family  name — 


44  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

arc  simply  a  survival  of  this  obstinate  denial.  "While 
filial  love  and  deference  towards  the  mother  form  a 
most  potent  influence  in  many  nations  otherwise  be- 
nighted, it  is  also  true  that  there  have  always  been 
races  holding  the  view  that  a  man  is  in  no  strict 
sense  the  son  of  his  mother,  but  only  of  his  father. 
This  view  assumes  that  he  stands  to  his  mother  only 
in  the  relation  held  by  the  rose  to  the  garden  that 
produced  it — a  relation  of  necessary  dependence, 
not  of  lineal  descent. 

The  highest  and  most  careful  statement  of  this 
paradoxical  theory  is  to  be  found  in  the  Greek 
drama  called  the  "  Eumcnidcs,"  commonly  translated 
as  "The  Furies,"  by  .^Eschylus,  the  greatest  of  Greek 
dramatists,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  some,  the  greatest 
of  the  world's  poets.  The  hero,  Orestes,  has  slain 
liis  mother,  Clytemnestra,  for  her  sins ;  and  the  Fu- 
vics  claim  him  as  their  victim,  because  they  have 
jurisdiction  over  those  who  have  shed  the  blood  of 
kindred.  Orestes  asks  why,  then,  did  they  not  pun- 
ish Clytemnestra  herself,  without  leaving  him  to  do 
it?  They  say  that  it  was  because  her  husband, 
whom  she  slew,  was  not  one  of  her  kindred.  But, 
he  says,  am  I  of  kindred  with  her?  They  cry  out 
in  indignation  against  this  monstrous  remark,  and 
the  matter  is  referred  to  Phcebus  Apollo,  who  thus 
rules :  "  The  mother  is  not  the  parent  of  what  is 
called  her  child,  but  only  the  nurse  of  the  infant. 


ON  ONE'S  RELATIONSHIP  TO   ONE'S  MOTHER.    45 

germ ;  for  the  male  creates  the  offspring,  while  tho 
female,  like  a  host  for  a  guest,  preserves  the  young 
plant,  when  some  god  does  not  mar  the  increase." 
He  adds  also,  "I  will  give  you  a  proof  of  my  as- 
sertion; there  may  be  a  father  without  a  mother;" 
and  he  then  mentions  the  mythological  tradition  of 
the  birth  of  Athena,  or  Minerva,  from  the  head  of 
Zeus,  or  Jupiter.  This  fantastic  argument  is,  of 
course,  irresistible  in  the  view  of  Greek  mythology. 
But  the  half  truth  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  it  has 
always  been  springing  up  all  over  the  world,  not 
alone  among  barbarous  nations,  but  among  the  most 
civilized  in  the  ancient  and  mediaeval  worlds. 

For  instance,  in  a  valuable  paper  on  the  social 
and  family  relations  among  Australian  tribes,  in  the 
Smithsonian  Report  for  1883,  by  A.  W.  Howitt,  wo 
find  just  this  same  theory  modifying  the  law  of  de- 
scent among  savages.  The  mother,  as  these  people 
state  it,  is  merely  the  nurse  of  the  child  ;  it  is  some- 
thing given  her  to  take  care  of.  The  same  thing  ap- 
pears in  the  Hindoo  Vcdas,  and  glimpses  of  it  are 
seen  through  Greek  and  Roman  law.  In  that  familiar 
book,  "The  Ancient  City,"  by  Coulangcs,  we  sec  that 
the  basis  of  the  Roman  state  was  the  Roman  family  : 
the  undying  home,  the  domestic  fire  that  never  was 
to  die  out,- but  must  be  tended  by  father  and  son 
successively  forever.  Into  this  household  the  wife 
entered  as  a  subordinate  only ;  she  was,  as  it  were, 


46  AVOMEN    AND    MEX. 

a  daughter  to  her  husband,  filice  loco,  the  jurists  say. 
Her  legal  connection  with  her  own  family  was  bro- 
ken off;  she  could  not  belong  to  two  families,  so 
she  was  merged  in  her  husband's.  For  purposes  of 
dignity  a  certain  equality  was  recognized;  she  pro- 
nounced the  formula  ubi  tu  Cains,  ego  Caia,  mean- 
ing that  she  would  be  the  feminine  head  of  the 
household  as  he  the  masculine  ;  but  it  was  only  as 
a  matter  of  dignity  ;  his  power  was  in  reality  abso- 
lute, she  held  hers  only  through  him.  She  was  es- 
sential to  the  home  ;  it  was  incomplete  without  her — 
a  Roman  priest  lost  his  office  on  becoming  a  widow- 
er ;  but  she  was  utterly  subordinate,  almost  an  ac- 
cident ;  the  children  not  only  belonged  by  law  to 
the  father,  but  they  were  recognized  as  intrinsically 
his  ;  she  was  their  custodian,  their  nurse,  even  as  the 
Australian  islander  said. 

We  may  admit  that  all  this  belongs  to  ages  of 
darkness.  The  question  is  whether  those  ages  arc 
quite  over.  While  men  may  properly  argue  for  this 
or  that  specific  reform  in  the  condition  of  women,  it 
is  better  to  remember  that  the  whole  relation  of  the 
sexes  has  its  roots  far  back  in  the  very  oldest  tradi- 
tions of  the  Aryan  race,  and  their  transformation 
must  be  a  matter  of  very  gradual  evolution.  Changes 
have  been  made  that  seemed  utterly  to  imperil  the 
old  theory  of  the  wife's  subordination  ;  and  yet  in 
some  way  or  other  this  tradition  has  held  its  own. 


ON   ONE'S  RELATIONSHIP  TO   ONE'S   MOTHER.     47 

In  the  Society  of  Friends,  for  instance,  the  equality 
and  independent  action  of  the  sexes  has  been 
brought  almost  to  its  highest  point;  and  yet,  even 
there,  every  woman  abandons  her  family  name  on 
marriage,  and  is  so  far  identified  from  that  moment 
with  her  husband's  household  instead  of  her  own  ; 
Lucrctia  Coffin  vanishes,  and  Lucrctia  Mott  takes 
her  place. 

In  the  few  cases  among  reformers  where  the  wife 
has,  as  a  matter  of  supposed  consistency,  refused  to 
take  her  husband's  name,  the  children  have  borne  it 
nevertheless ;  and  the  tradition  of  the  old  Roman 
law — that  they  were  her  husband's  children  rather 
than  hers — has  thus  been  maintained  in  spite  of  her 
protest.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  see  how  we  can  get  away 
from  the  remnant  of  this  logical  entanglement,  since 
no  child  can  bear  all  its  inherited  names;  and  if  it 
is  to  keep  but  one,  it  is  in  many  respects  easier  that 
it  should  be  the  father's.  Fortunately  there  are 
plenty  of  specific  ways  in  which  the  condition  of 
women  may  be  bettered,  leaving  students  of  antiqui- 
ty to  interpret  the  decision  of  Phoebus  Apollo  as 
they  may. 


X. 

THE  FLOOD-TIDE  OF  YOUTH. 

To  one  who  returns  in  middle  or  later  life,  like 
myself,  to  dwell  in  some  college  town  where  the 
first  years  of  youth  were  spent,  there  is  something 
that  may  fairly  be  called  tremendous  in  the  pres- 
ence of  that  flood-tide  of  youth  which  surges  for- 
ever through  the  streets.  It  is  at  first  dismaying, 
then  interesting,  and  at  last  quite  absorbing  in  its 
fascination.  The  new-comer  soon  finds  that  he  lias 
in  a  manner  to  hold  himself  firm  against  it  as 
against  an  incoming  sea.  To  say  that  he  feels  in- 
significant before  it  is  to  say  nothing ;  it  carrieth 
him  away  as  with  a  flood.  What  is  all  that  which 
makes  up  the  sum  of  his  personal  existence— his 
childhood,  his  early  loves  and  hopes  and  fears,  his 
gratified  or  ungratified  ambitions,  and  what  he  calls 
his  work  in  the  world — in  presence  of  this  resistless 
wave  of  another  generation,  sweeping  on  to  replace 
him  and  to  annihilate  the  very  trace  of  him  and 
his? 


THE    FLOOD-TIDE    OF    YOUTH.  49 

"  Who  brings  his  little  vanity,  his  grave 
Appeal  to  men's  applause  or  wonder. . . . 
Flash  o'er  the  graven  sands  a  liberal  wave 
And  let  us  know  no  more  his  memory  or  his  blood." 

It  is  not  that  these  unconscious  boys  arc  distinct- 
ly aware  how  secure  is  their  tenure,  how  insecure  and 
brief  is  yours.  That  is  the  worst  of  it.  A  tinge 
of  self-consciousness  would  imply  a  trace  of  weak- 
ness. Their  demeanor  is  never  defiant  or  insolent ; 
it  would  be  too  flattering  were  it  thus.  Such  a 
bearing  would  imply  a  certain  equality;  whereas 
there  is  no  equality  between  those  who  possess  the 
future  and  those  who  only  hold  the  defined  and 
limited  past.  You  are  not  slighted  as  an  individ- 
ual, but  simply  superseded  as  a  generation.  There 
is  no  equality  between  Shakespeare's  dying  King 
Henry  and  the  Prince  Hal  who  tries  on  his  crown. 
In  the  case  of  these  college  youths,  disrespect  would 
be  almost  complimentary ;  it  is  the  supreme  and 
absolute  indifference  that  overwhelms.  You  may 
have  your  place  in  the  world,  such  as  it  is.  "Old 
age  hath  yet  its  honor  and  its  toil."  They  neither 
assert  nor  deny  it.  Why  should  they?  They 
simply  shoulder  their  way  through  the  ranks  of 
maturer  persons,  triumphantly  heedless,  like  the 
conquering  Goths  through  the  streets  of  Rome,  or 
a  party  of  California  miners  through  the  Louvre. 
"The  accumulations  of  the  past  may  be  all  very 
4 


50  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

well,"  they  seem  to  say, "but  ours  is  the  future." 
They  are  right;  that  future  is  in  their  hands,  with 
its  coming  art  and  statesmanship,  Rome,  Louvre, 
and  all.  This  they  know,  or  it  is  true  without  their 
knowing  it,  which  makes  them  still  more  resistless 
and  insuperable  than  if  they  knew  it. 

There  is  not  a  trace  of  any  spirit  of  unkindncss 
about  all  this ;  they  would  as  soon  think  of  being 
unkind  to  the  portrait  of  their  great-grandfather. 
You  may  even  invade  their  haunts  unmolested.  If 
you  go  with  a  young  niece  or  daughter  to  an  as- 
sembly, they  receive  you  with  grave  courtesy  and 
with  a  respect  that  penetrates  to  the  marrow  of 
your  bones,  showing  how  utterly  you  are  removed 
from  their  world.  They  even  glance  at  you  with  a 
pleased  interest  sometimes,  as  if  one  of  the  Copley 
paintings  had  come  down  from  the  wall  of  Mem<*- 
rial  llall  and  walked  and  talked.  It  is  to  them  in- 
conceivable that  you  should  like  to  come  there  ;  but 
if  you  do,  they  really  like  to  have  you.  They  do 
not  compliment  you  by  the  slightest  jealousy  or 
resentment.  They  would  gladly  put  you  on  a  raised 
scat  with  the  other  chaperons,  and  give  you,  as  they 
give  them,  bouquets  and  ice-cream  ;  all  that  is  left 
of  the  intoxicating  sweets  of  youth.  It  is  this  care- 
less courtesy  that  is  the  crowning  banishment.  In  all 
Tourguenief  s  novels  there  is  no  scene  more  power- 
ful than  that  closing  chapter  of  "Lisa"  where  the  par- 


THE    FLOOD-TIDE    OF    YOUTH.  51 

ticipant  in  a  great  domestic  tragedy  conies  back  in 
later  years  and  bursts  in  upon  a  gay  circle  of  youths 
and  maidens,  the  kindred  and  namesakes  of  those 
who  took  part  in  that  earlier  heart-break — a  joyous 
group,  who  gather  laughingly  around  him,  vaguely 
recall  for  an  instant  the  names  that  made  up  all  of 
life  to  him,  and  then  whirl  away,  not  even  noticing 
him  when  he  leaves  the  house. 

But  there  really  is  no  need  of  sorrow  in  dwelling 
amid  this  ever-rising  tide.  As  Algernon  in  "Pa- 
tience" regards  himself  as  a  trustee  for  beauty,  to 
preserve  it,  show  it,  and  make  the  most  of  it,  so  these 
exuberant  children  are  trustees  for  youth.  It  is 
amusing  to  notice  that  sometimes,  indeed,  they,  like 
Algernon,  grow  weary  of  their  trust,  and  even  en- 
joy assuming  the  attitudes  of  old  age  a  little  while. 
No  white-haired  man  is  so  old — or  would  be,  if  he 
could  help  it — as  many  a  college  bard  at  twenty 
who  writes  for  himself,  as  Dr.  Holmes  wrote  when 
little  more  than  that  age : 

"Alas  !  the  morning  dew  is  gone — 
Gone  ere  the  full  of  day." 

How  delicious  it  is  to  boast  of  age  when  ono  is 
young,  and  of  misery  when  one  is  happy  !  It  is 
like  the  delight  of  a  fresh  young  girl  at  wearing 
hair-powder  and  attempting  to  look  old ;  the  more 
venerable  the  fashion,  the  more  radiant  becomes 


52  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

her  blooming  youth  ;  but  let  her  hair  really  grow 
gray  for  a  day,  and  see  how  she  likes  it !  Yet 
hence  with  the  cruel  suggestion  !  Why  should  we 
know  how  she  likes  it?  Her  turn  will  come  soon 
enough.  Be  the  trustee  for  youth  while  you  can, 
my  fair  one,  and  you  too,  jubilant  and  tumultuous 
boys.  Gray  hairs  may  bring  you  something  that 
is  worth  all  youth's  spring-tide.  That  something 
is  what  it  is  now  the  fashion  to  call  "altruism" — 
the  power  of  being  happy  in  another's  happiness, 
the  last  and  most  blessed  of  all  Heaven's  gifts  to 
man.  You  have  a  thousand  advantages  over  your 
venerable  relative  who  stands,  an  unobserved  wall- 
flower, behind  you  ;  but  he  has  one  vast  advantage 
that  you  cannot  share:  he  can  partake  in  imagination 
of  every  thrill  of  your  happiness,  for  he  has  had 
it  all ;  bat  you  cannot  comprctiend  an  atom  of  hie, 
for  you  have  not  come  to  it.  As  he  watches  his 
daughter  or  his  favorite  niece  with  divided  emotions 
in  the  ballroom  —  enraged,  as  Howells  says,  when 
she  has  not  a  partner,  and  jealous  when  she  has — 
he  still  has  a  pleasure  that  he  would  not,  on  the 
whole,  exchange  for  yours.  Your  enjoyments  arc 
more  ardent,  it  may  be,  but  his  have  wider  range, 
for  they  represent  the  whole  genial  sympathy  of 
matured  existence. 

And  beyond  all  this — and  still  more  utterly  be- 
yond the  comprehension   of  the  young  —  is  that 


THE    FLOOD-TIDE    OP   YOUTH.  53 

sense  of  wealth  and  inherent  resources  in  the  hu- 
man race  which  we  obtain  from  watching  this  in- 
cessant tide.  What  the  individual  loses  by  it  in 
importance,  humanity  gains.  In  saner  moments  I 
am  able  not  merely  to  acquiesce,  but  positively  to 
exult,  in  the  thought  that  a  new  generation  is  to 
supersede  all  that  my  own  contemporaries  with  such 
vast  effort  have  accomplished ;  to  make  our  seeming 
wealth  poverty,  our  successes  superfluous,  our  deeds 
forgotten.  Not  only  is  it  the  new  generation's  right, 
but  it  is  the  glory  of  the  race,  thus  to  obliterate  all 
predecessors.  It  proves  that  the  life  of  humanity 
on  this  planet  is  an  ocean,  not  a  pond  :  nay,  it  is 
more  than  an  ocean,  for  it  has  a  flood-tide,  but  no 
ebb. 


XI. 

"BUT  STRONG  OF  WILL." 

IN  one  of  TVhittier's  finest  ballads  he  gives  a 
touch  of  feminine  character  worth  considering  in 
a.  world  where  so  many  of  the  young  or  foolish 
still  hold  it  to  be  the  perfection  of  womanhood  to 
be  characterless.  The  phrase  is  to  be  found  in 
"Amy  Wentworth,"  one  of  the  few  of  his  ballads 
which  have  no  direct  historical  foundation,  but 
simply  paint  a  period.  The  scene  is  laid  in  the 
proud  little  colonial  town  of  Portsmouth,  New 
Hampshire,  with  its  high-bred  ways  and  its  state- 
ly ante-Revolutionary  traditions  —  such  traditions 
as  became  an  Episcopalian  and  loyal  colony,  al- 
though nothing  now  remains  to  commemorate  their 
sway  except  a  few  fine  old  houses,  some  family 
portraits,  and  this  ballad  of  Whittier's.  His  hero- 
ine, gently  nurtured,  has  given  her  heart  to  the 
captain  of  a  fishing-smack,  and  the  poet  thus  de- 
scribes the  situation  : 

"  Her  home  is  brave  in  Jaffrey  Street, 

With  stately  stairways,  worn 
By  feet  of  old  colonial  knights 
And  ladies  gentle  bom  ; 


"BUT   STRONG   OF   WILL."  55 

"  And  on  her,  from  the  wainscot  old, 

Ancestral  faces  frown, 
And  this  has  worn  the  soldier's  sword, 
And  that  the  judge's  gown. 

"  But  strong  of  will  and  proud  as  they, 

She  walks  the  gallery  floor 
As  if  she  trod  her  sailor's  deck 
In  stormy  Labrador." 

What  a  fascinating  thing,  after  all,  is  strength  in  a 
woman  !  With  what  delight  all  readers  turned  from 
the  weak  or  wicked  heroine  of  Thackeray's  earlier 
novels  to  his  superb  young  Ethel  Newcome,  "  strong 
of  will  and  proud  as  they  "  who  would  have  domi- 
neered over  her.  Scott,  with  his  love  of  chivalry, 
always  flung  some  attribute  of  courage  about  the 
.women  whom  he  meant  to  win  our  hearts — or  he 
failed  if  he  did  not.  Even  his  graceful  Ellen  Doug- 
las is  incapable  of  actual  cowardice. 

"  I  think  with  anguish,  or,  if  e'er 
A  Douglas  knew  the  word,  with  fear." 

So,  in  the  Scottish  ballads,  it  takes  something  more 
than  a  weakling  to  spring  up  behind  young  Lochiu- 
var  in  the  saddle,  or  to  be  "  owre  the  Border  and 
aw  a'  "  with  Jock  o'  Hazeldean.  Shakespeare  docs 
not  love  to  paint  characterless  heroines : 


56  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

"  I  grant  I  am  a  woman  ;  but,  withal, 
A  woman  that  Lord  Brutus  took  to  wife ; 
I  grant  I  am  a  woman ;  but,  withal, 
A  woman  well  reputed — Cato's  daughter." 

Even  the  child  Juliet  at  fourteen  is  able  to  resist  her 
whole  proud  household,  and  there  is  more  peril  in 
her  eyes  than  in  twenty  of  their  swords. 

The  very  disproportion  between  bodily  and  men- 
tal strength  makes  personal  character  more  conspic- 
uous in  women,  as  it  was  often  noticed  in  our  army 
that  some  boy-officer,  if  a  hero  in  heart,  had  a  pe- 
culiar power  over  rough  men  who  could  have  felled 
him  with  a  blow.  We  all  enjoy  records  of  woman- 
ly heroism — of  the  Countess  of  Nithisdale's  rescue 
of  her  husband  from  prison,  of  the  Baroness  de  la 
Rochejaquclein's  adventures  in  La  Vendee,  and  of 
Catherine  Douglas,  who  barred  the  door  by  thrust- 
ing her  delicate  arm  through  the  staples  in  defence 
of  her  royal  mistress.  Our  own  civil  war  furnished 
many  similar  instances  of  courage;  yet  none  sur- 
passing, or  perhaps  equalling,  the  narrative  given  by 
the  daughter  of  General  Stone*  of  the  manner  in 
which  her  mother  protected  her  whole  household  of 
girls  and  young  children  in  Cairo  (Egypt)  in  time 
of  insurrection,  without  money  and  almost  without 
friends,  by  mere  strength  of  will.  No  wonder  one 

*  Century  for  June,  1884. 


"BUT    STRONG    OP    WILL."  57 

of  the  Arab  officers  said,  "  If  all  American  women 
are  like  you,  I  should  not  like  to  go  to  war  against 
the  men."  Once  she  said — in  a  voice  which  the 
daughter  elsewhere  describes  as  soft  and  low — 
"  Girls,  if  an  Arab  lays  hands  upon  you,  I  expect 
you  to  save  yourselves  by  putting  a  bullet  through 
your  hearts.  Don't  leave  it  for  me  to  t/o."  There 
is  many  a  general  who  could  composedly  give  an 
order  that  would  cost  ten  thousand  lives,  and  yet 
who  would  not  have  the  nerve  to  say  to  his  daugh- 
ters those  last  seven  words,  and  mean  them. 

We  talk  about  women's  not  needing  strength  of 
will,  because  they  will  be  "  protected."  Who  is  pro- 
tected, who  can  be  protected,  against  more  than  the 
ills  of  the  passing  day  ?  Men  heap  up  wealth  for 
their  daughters,  and  that  very  wealth  may  buy  them 
husbands  who  will  break  their  hearts,  and  who 
would  never  have  sought  them  had  they  been  poor. 
Or  the  money  itself  disappears.  One  of  the  heirs 
of  one  of  the  largest  estates  bequeathed  in  Boston 
in  the  last  generation — an  estate  equally  and  justly 
distributed — told  me  that  there  were  already  de- 
scendants of  the  testator  who  were  in  poverty  and 
needed  assistance.  Yet  how  few  of  them  probably 
were  prepared  for  this !  Madame  de  Gcnlis,  the 
only  intellectual  woman  in  France  who  for  a  time 
rivalled  Madame  de  Stael  in  fame,  said  that  of  all 
her  attainments  the  one  which  she  most  prized  was 


58  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

that,  in  case  of  hardship,  she  knew  twenty  different 
ways  of  making  a  living.  Then,  apart  from  pover- 
ty, think  of  other  risks  of  life !  The  most  petted 
girl  may  marry  some  frontier  army  officer,  and  find 
herself  some  day  with  her  husband  shot  down  at 
her  side  by  Indian  arrows,  she  being  left  alone  with 
her  children  among  savages  far  worse  than  the  Arabs 
whom  Mrs.  Stone  dreaded.  Who  has  ever  gone  by 
night  into  the  suffocating  steerage,  or  on  board  the 
stifling  emigrant  train,  without  a  thrill  of  admira- 
tion for  the  obscure  and  nameless  women  who  pilot 
their  crying  children  through  that  prolonged  ordeal 
of  misery,  while  the  easier  lot  of  the  husband  is  to 
sit  and  smoke  with  his  mates?  Look  at  the  lives 
of  these  women  after  they  have  reached  their  West- 
ern destination,  their  enormous,  unrelieved  labors, 
their  unknown  and  often  thankless  toils!  Again, 
who  can  protect  the  most  favored  woman  against 
disease?  We  daily. see  that  the  physicians  cannot. 
It  seems  to  me  that  if  we  recognized  more  dis- 
tinctly in  our  training  that  girls  as  well  as  boys 
need  strength  of  will,  we  should  be  more  sure  of 
developing  that  quality,  and  it  would  also  be  more 
harmonious  when  it  came.  Neither  a  tree  nor  a 
character  can  show  much  grace  if  it  has  to  fight  its 
way  by  inches  against  cold  and  storm.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  choose  between  the  gnarled  oak  and 
the  clinging  vine;  there  is  something  intermediate. 


"BUT   STRONG    OF    AVILL."  59 

Grant  all  that  may  be  claimed  of  the  gracefulness  of 
dependence,  the  charm  of  submission,  the  truth  re- 
mains that  actual  life  makes  little  account  of  these 
soft  adornments.  Of  all  things  on  earth,  after  love, 
that  which  a  human  being  most  needs  is  strength  ; 
and  as  the  ancients  accounted  a  lioness  with  her 
young  more  dangerous  than  a  lion,  so  the  very  fact 
that  woman  is  the  mother  of  the  human  race  makes 
it  essential  that  she  should  have  some  vigor  of  will. 
It  is  desirable,  doubtless,  that  a  man  should  be 
strong,  but  we  may  almost  say  that  a  woman  must 
be  strong. 


XII. 
MARKETABLE  ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 

I  ONCE  knew  of  a  young  man  who  had  a  method- 
ical mind  and  a  large  acquaintance  among  young 
women.  lie  used  to  keep  their  names  in  a  book, 
with  memoranda  of  their  accomplishments  —  not- 
ing carefully  which  could  dance  well,  which  could 
embroider  prettily,  which  make  sponge-cake,  which 
drive  a  horse ;  so  that,  should  there  be  a  social  de- 
mand for  either  of  these  gifts,  it  could  be  supplied. 
A  similar  variety  of  attainments  is  found  in  the 
nursery  ballad  about  the  three  ships  that  came  sail- 
ing by  with  a  pretty  maid  in  each  : 

"  And  one  could  whistle,  and  one  could  sing, 
And  one  could  play  on  the  violin." 

But,  after  all,  it  is  often  asked,  What  is  to  become 
of  the  pretty  maids  on  some  day  when  their  fathers' 
ships  do  not  come  in,  and  they  are  left  in  poverty? 
What  good  will  their  accomplishments  do  them? 

It  is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  answer  that  all  these 
resources  may,  if  well  handled,  do  a  great  deal  for 
them  in  just  that  emergency.  Accomplishments 


MARKETABLE    ACCOMPLISHMENTS.  61 

arc  really  just  as  marketable  as  anything  else,  so 
long  as  there  are  other  people  who  wish  to  learn  or 
borrow  them.  It  is  common  to  say  that  adversity 
comes  peculiarly  hard  on  those  who  are  new  to  it, 
but  the  truth  is  that  such  sufferers  often  feel  it  less 
than  those  who  have  been  ground  down  by  it  all 
the  time.  The  courage  of  the  new  beginners  is 
better;  their  spirits  are  better.  I  have  known 
•young  girls  who  pronounced  it  "  a  lark "  to  have 
their  fathers  lose  all  their  possessions,  so  that  they 
themselves  could  have  the  new  excitement  of  self- 
support.  Again,  they  have  usually  more  friends 
and  more  zealous  counsellors  than  those  who  have 
been  poor  all  their  lives.  In  our  easy  American  so- 
ciety a  sudden  loss  of  property  docs  not,  as  in  older 
countries,  at  once  transfer  a  person  to  a  different 
social  grade;  we  see  too  many  nps  and  downs  for 
that ;  and  towards  a  young  woman  especially,  who 
is  obliged  to  shift  for  herself,  there  is  usually  a  cord- 
ial and  generous  sentiment  among  the  friends  of 
more  prosperous  hours.  It  is  apt  to  be  easier  for 
her  to  obtain  work  or  instruction  or. capital  than 
if  she  had  always  been  poor.  The  things  essential 
are  energy,  a  cheerful  spirit,  and  a  quick  discovery 
of  the  gift,  whatever  it  is,  that  will  be  her  strongest 
hold. 

As  to  the  selection   of  this  gift,  it  is,  perhaps, 
good  advice  to  say,  Try  the  thing  that  yon  can  do 


62  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

best  already,  before  spending  time  and  money  in 
learning  something  else  that  you  cannot  do  at  all. 
If  you  have  a  particular  kind  of  preserves  for  which 
you  are  famous,  see  if  they  are  not  available  in  a 
wider  circle ;  many  a  household  of  Southern  women 
made  this  their  main  resource  after  the  devastations 
of  the  civil  war.  In  the  same  way  the  mere  pos- 
session of  a  remarkably  good  receipt  for  molasses 
candy  was  once  quite  a  treasure  to  a  Northern  fam- 
ily of  my  acquaintance  daring  a  time  of  commer- 
cial panic.  Among  non-culinary  accomplishments 
the  range  is  also  considerable.  In  boyhood  I  learned 
dancing  of  an  accomplished  lady,  the  daughter  of  a 
judge  and  the  sister  of  a  naval  officer  who  was  af- 
terwards eminent;  being  temporarily  straitened  in 
circumstances,  she  tried  this  means  of  support,  and 
was  only  the  more  respected  in  consequence.  I 
know  another  lady  of  whom  the  same  is  true  to- 
day ;  she  teaches  in  a  private  school  in  the  morning, 
and  has  five  different  dancing-classes  in  the  after- 
noons. 

I  heard  lately  of  another  who  had  always  been 
accustomed  to  wealth,  but  who,  on  falling  suddenly 
into  poverty,  called  the  roll  of  her  acquirements, 
and  found  that  she  knew  nothing  really  well,  except 
whist-playing.  She  had,  therefore,  the  courage  and 
ingenuity  to  see  if  she  .could  not  make  something 
out  of  that.  Her  proficiency  was  well  known,  and 


MARKETABLE    ACCOMPLISHMENTS.  63 

she  now  lias  ten  small  classes  in  that  difficult  art, 
and  receives  from  them  a  fair  compensation.  There 
are  women  who  are  so  well  known  among  their 
friends  for  their  especial  skill  in  tennis-playing  or 
skating  or  swimming  that  they  would  find  it  easy 
to  form  classes  for  these  accomplishments  if  they 
went  into  the  matter  with  energy.  Of  course  the 
work  must  be  done,  if  undertaken,  in  a  perfectly 
business-like  way — no  fine-lady  dawdling  ;  it  must 
be  simply  trying  to  earn  an  honest  penny  by  the 
thing  a  woman  knows,  instead  of  apprenticing  her- 
self to  stenography  or  to  type-writing,  which  she 
docs  not  know.  The  list  could  easily  be  extended. 
In  the  large  community  where  I  live  there  is  abso- 
lutely no  one  to  teach  a  young  girl  to  ride  on  horse- 
back— a  thing  which  an  accomplished  horsewoman 
could  do  as  well  as  a  man.  Last  year  I  knew  a 
young  girl  who,  having  mechanical  aptitude,  bought 
a  jig-saw,  and  had  to  search  through  the  whole 
neighborhood,  and  almost  give  up  in  despair,  be- 
fore she  could  find  any  one  to  teach  her  how  to  use 
it;  yet  she  would  willingly  have  paid  for  the  in- 
struction. Even  in  a  thing  so  universal  as  crochet, 
I  am  told  that  there  is  always  a  demand  for  some 
one  who  knows  the  very  newest  stitches. 

All  such  suggestions  as  these  are  apt  to  be  mis- 
construed; the  adviser  is  supposed  to  have  given 
the  absurd  assurance  that  such  enterprises  will  find 


64  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

an  easy  success,  without  allowance  for  time  or  place 
or  circumstances.  Quite  otherwise ;  the  path  of 
self-support  is  never  very  easy  under  any  circum- 
stances. It  is  failure  that  is  easy.  You  may  find 
no  employment  as  a  governess,  no  pupils  for  a 
school,  no  encouragement  as  a  copyist.  These  oc- 
cupations are  always  crowded;  but  if  you  have  a 
special  gift  it  is  likely  to  lie  in  some  line  where,  if 
the  demand  be  less,  there  is  also  less  competition. 
As  civilization  advances,  arts  and  accomplishments 
develop.  I  can  remember  the  time  when  there  was 
hardly  a  teacher  of  gymnastics  in  America  who  was 
not  an  ignorant  and  vulgar  pugilist,  whereas  such 
instruction  now  is  an  occupation  for  educated  men 
and  women.  What  I  mean  to  urge  is  that  the  very 
gifts  which  are  considered  ornamental  may  often  be 
utilized  if  combined  with  energy  and  ingenuity;  and 
that  for  this  purpose  those  who  "  have  known  bet- 
ter days"  possess  a  real  advantage  in  a  circle  of  ac- 
quaintance ready-made  and  willing  to  aid  them,  and 
also  in  the  acquired  manners  which  make  their 
work  attractive.  It  always  seemed  to  me  that  the 
impoverished  heroine  of  Mr.  Howclls's  "  A  Woman's 
Reason"  would  not  have  had  quite  so  hard  a  strug- 
gle in  real  life  as  that  with  which  his  ingenuity  has 
provided  her. 


XIII. 
"CHANCES." 

THE  head  of  a  great  collegiate  institution  for 
women  once  told  me  of  receiving  a  visit  from  a 
titled  Englishman,  who  examined  with  much  interest 
all  the  departments.  Finally,  taking  her  aside  with 
an  air  of  mystery,  he  said  that  there  was  one  ques- 
tion which  he  greatly  desired  to  ask  her.  On  her 
assenting,  he  said,  "  This  is  all  very  interesting,  but 
I  really  want  to  know  what  influence  it  is  found  to 
have  upon  their  future  lives,  don't  you  know."  She 
was  pleased  at  the  question,  and  at  once  proceeded 
to  give  statistics  as  to  how  many  of  the  graduates 
were  now  teachers,  how  many  were  missionaries, 
and  the  like.  This  evidently  did  not  satisfy  him. 
"Ah!  that's  very  interesting,"  he  said — "very  in- 
teresting indeed ;  but  that  isn't  just  it.  What  effect 
docs  this  higher  education  have  upon — upon  their 
chances?'1'1  "Upon  their  chances?"  she  naively  said 
— "chances  of  what?"  "  Why,  of  course,"  he  said, 
"  their  chances  of  getting  a  husband." 

Being  a  lady  of  some  humor,  she  found  it  difficult 
at  first  to  answer,  but  presently  explained  that  she 
5 


GO  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

had  not  tabulated  any  statistics  on  that  point,  al- 
though, judging  from  the  frequency  with  which 
wedding- cards  came  through  the  post-office,  the 
graduates  were  in  a  fair  way  to  be  married  quite  as 
fast  as  was  desirable,  possibly  faster.  And  Sir  John 
was  apparently  a  little  relieved  when,  on  exhibiting 
to  him  the  gymnasium,  she  pointed  out  the  use  of 
various  articles  of  apparatus  for  physical  improve- 
ment. "  Ah  !"  he  said,  "  that,  now,  is  very  interest- 
ing indeed ;  that  is  excellent.  After  all,  don't  you 
know,  nothing  improves  a  girl's  chances  like  a  good 
carriage  of  the  person  !" 

Why  is  it  that  nobody  ever  speaks  of  a  man's 
"chances "in  a  sense  wholly  matrimonial?  Per- 
haps they  do  in  England,  where,  I  must  say,  one 
grows  accustomed  to  hearing  the  worldly  side  of 
marriage  presented  in  a  way  that  rather  disgusts  an 
American  ;  but  even  a  travelling  Englishman  would 
hardly,  I  fancy,  go  through  Harvard  or  Yale  asking 
himself  whether  the  lecture-rooms  and  the  gymna- 
sium were  likely  to  hinder  or  help  the  young  men's 
chances  of  marriage.  Yet  he — and  possibly  some 
of  our  own  countrymen  also — would  use  this  odd 
phrase  about  women  without  thinking  of  its  oddity. 
The  assumption  is,  of  course,  that  marriage  is  the 
one  momentous  event  of  a  woman's  life,  and  a 
very  subordinate  matter  in  a  man's  ;  and,  moreover, 
that  in  a  woman's  case  it  is  a  matter  of  chance,  and 


"CHANCES."  67 

in  a  man's  of  certainty.  Let  us  consider  all  this  a 
little. 

We  may  well  grant  that  marriage  must  hold  a 
more  controlling  share  in  a  woman's  life  than  in  a 
man's,  because  "she  is  anchored  by  her  children  as  a 
man  is  not.  Yet  when  we  look  round  us  and  see 
the  enormous  number  of  cases  where  a  woman  cither 
is  never  married,  or  is  childless,  or  is  left  widowed, 
it  is  quite  evident  that  there  are  for  her  in  life  other 
opportunities  and  duties,  and  therefore  "  chances," 
besides  those  determined  by  marriage  alone.  And 
as  to  the  risk  involved  in  marriage,  the  more  we  re- 
duce it  to  a  minimum  by  care  and  judgment  and 
good  sense,  the  better.  There  is  no  surer  prepara- 
tion for  misery,  one  would  think,  than  to  accustom 
a  young  girl  to  think  of  every  offer  of  marriage  as 
a  "  chance,"  to  be  eagerly  seized  as  a  fish  swallows 
the  bait,  without  knowing  who  or  what  is  at  the 
other  end  of  the  fishing-rod. 

So  long  as  it  is  the  custom  of  society  for  men  to 
ask  the  momentous  question  and  for  women  only  to 
answer  it  —  and  this  custom  will  probably  last,  in 
spite  of  certain  philosophers,  forever — so  long  there 
will  be  a  little  more  clement  of  chance  in  the  mar- 
riage relations  of  women  than  of  men.  A  ball- 
room is  in  this  respect  a  mimic  world,  and  it  is  per- 
fectly clear  that  the  young  lady  who  must  sit  still 
behind  her  bouquet  and  be  asked  has  less  control  of 


68  AVOJIEN    AND    MEN. 

her  own  destiny  than  the  young  man  who  can  try 
every  girl  in  the  room  in  succession  until  lie  finds  a 
partner.  But  we  certainly  cannot  say  that  chance 
entirely  controls  either  sex,  in  real  life,  when  we 
consider  how  many  men  die  unmarried  through  in- 
ability  to  find  or  win  the  woman  they  want;  and 
when  we  reflect,  on  the  other  hand,  that  there  are 
probably  very  few  women  who  do  not  have  first  or 
last  an  opportunity  of  marriage,  if  they  were  only 
as  easy  to  satisfy  as  men  sometimes  seem.  Perhaps 
nobody  will  ever  frame  a  philosophical  theory  of 
the  law  that  brings  together  certain  men  and  cer- 
tain women  as  lovers.  The  brilliant  author  of 
"Counterparts"  tried  her  hand  at  it,  and  while  she 
produced  a  remarkable  novel,  she  did  not  establish 
her  theory  very  firmly  after  all.  But  whatever  the 
true  philosophy  may  be,  it  is  pretty  certain  that  the 
element  of  chance  is  distributed  between  man  and 
woman,  and  that  a  good  deal  of  it  exists  for  both 
in  that  formidable  practical  problem  we  call  mar- 
riage. 

But  why,  oh  why,  if  Sir  John  and  his  fellow- 
worldlings  arc  so  anxious  about  a  girl's  "chances" 
at  all,  do  they  not  carry  their  solicitude  far  beyond 
marriage,  and  make  it  include  the  whole  life?  Up 
to  the  wedding-day  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  ward 
off  the  storms  of  fate ;  ind.eed,  the  only  serious 
storm  to  young  people  in  love  consists  in  the  possi- 


"CHANCES."  69 

bio  putting  off  of  that  day  of  bliss.  But  it  is  in 
later  life  that  perils  begin — perils  which  neither  the 
presence  of  geometrical  knowledge  nor  its  absence, 
nor  even  a  genteel  carriage  of  the  person,  can  very 
seriously  affect.  "Ah,  sir!"  said  a  pretty  young 
Irish  "  second-ghi  "  to  me  the  other  day,  "  my  aunt 
is  always  at  me  to  be  a  Sister  [of  Charity],  and  not 
be  married  at  all ;  and  indade,  sir,  when  I  think  of 
the  girls  that  I  went  to  school  with,  and  see  some 
of  them  married  already,  and  maybe  with  children, 
Jind  maybe  a  husband  that  drinks,  I  think  that  if 
their  example  doesn't  make  a  Sister  of  me,  nothing 
of  my  aunt's  taching  will  ever  do  it."  Here  is  a 
glimpse,  given  with  the  stern  realism  of  humble  life, 
of  the  really  formidable  chances  of  a  woman's  ca- 
reer— chances  that  begin  after  the  orange  blossoms 
are  faded,  and  the  handfuls  of  rice  thrown,  and  the 
guests  gone  home.  Let  us,  if  possible,  Sir  John, 
give  to  our  daughters  a  training  in  character  and 
purpose  which  shall  enable  them,  with  or  without 
geometry  and  gymnastics,  to  do  true  women's  work 
in  the  world,  and  make  their  usefulness,  and  even 
their  happiness,  something  more  than  things  of 
chance. 


XIV. 
THE   DAUGHTERS    OF   TOIL. 

THE  time  lias  come  when  the  watering-places  are 
mainly  deserted,  their  banquet -halls  unoccupied, 
their  bar-rooms  closed,  their  dancing-halls  silent; 
while  all  the  innumerable  small  dealers  and  show- 
men who  clustered  in  their  neighborhood  have,  put 
away  their  wares,  if  they  still  have  any,  in  boxes  ; 
have  secreted  their  gains,  if  they  have  made  any, 
in  their  pockets;  and  have  disappeared — whither? 
Their  destination  seems  as  inscrutable  as  that  of 
the  birds  of  summer,  and  we  only  know  that,  like 
the  birds,  they  will  return  in  spring.  But  there  is 
one  class  of  summer  toilers  by  the  sea  whom  we 
can  trace  and  whose  destination  we  know — the  most 
laborious  toilers  of  all.  When  the  household  lights 
go  out,  one  by  one,  at  Newport  or  Mount  Desert ; 
when  the  trunks  are  all  packed,  and  "John"  has 
seen  to  the  departure  of  the  last  load  of  luggage; 
when  the  pretty  cottage  is  locked  up,  and  relapses 
into  the  hands  of  the  native  Hiram  or  the  foreign- 
born  Dennis,  who  dwells  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
is  to  keep  an  eye  to  it  all  winter — then  we  know 


THE    DAUGHTERS    OF   TOIL.  71 

that  the  change  has  come,  and  that  the  most  labo- 
rious of  the  daughters  of  toil  are  transferred  to  an- 
other sphere  of  labor,  not  less  arduous,  but  only  dif- 
ferent. These  women  of  endless  and  exhausting 
industry  are,  it  is  needless  to  say,  the  class  who  are 
looked  upon  as  idlers,  butterflies,  daughters  of  ease 
and  luxury.  They  are  the  women  who,  as  they  sit 
in  their  luxurious  carriages,  are  regarded  by  the  mill- 
girl  or  the  fisherman's  daughter  as  the  embodiment 
of  pampered  bliss ;  while  their  lives  arc  unquestion- 
ably harder  in  many  cases  than  any  that  mill-girl  or 
fisherman's  daughter  ever  imagined. 

"  It  requires  my  whole  time  and  strength  during 
the  whole  summer,"  said  one  of  this  class  to  me  once 
at  Newport,  "  and  the  whole  time  and  strength  of  my 
three  daughters,  to  keep  up  with  the  ordinary  round 
of  social  duties — to  welcome  our  guests,  to  drive  and 
go  to  entertainments  with  them,  to  receive  calls,  to 
make  calls,  and  to  keep  the  ordinary  machinery  of 
the  establishment  in  operation."  This  lady  was  one 
of  the  very  best  and  most  high-minded  of  her  class 
—  conscientious,  domestic,  enlightened.  I  knew 
from  observation  that  what  she  said  was  strictly  true. 
I  knew  also  that  as  she  did  in  summer  at  a  so-called 
"  scene  of  recreation,"  so  she  lived  in  winter  in  the 
city  where  she  dwelt;  and  this  almost  of  necessity, 
from  the  social  connections  of  her  family  and  the 
real  or  supposed  needs  of  her  children.  Professional 


72  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

men  have  their  vacations,  farmers  have  their  hiber- 
nating season,  many  mechanics  have  a  portion  of  the 
year  when  work  is  only  too  light — but  this  woman 
had  really  no  period  when  the  strain  was  in  the 
least  relaxed,  except  during  Lent.  There  were,  to  be 
sure,  a  few  weeks  of  comparative  leisure  gained  by 
going  unusually  early  to  her  country-seat  in  spring- 
er staying  unusually  late  in  autumn;  but  even  these, 
for  a  mother  whose  daughters  must  have  unimpeach- 
able wardrobes,  and  for  a  house-keeper  whose  two  or 
three  mansions  needed  constantly  to  be  kept  in  pre- 
sentable order,  could  scarcely  be  given  to  anything 
like  rest.  And  as  with  this  estimable  lady,  so  with 
all  "  society  women  "  who  are  heads  of  households. 
They  seem  to  me  to  be  absolutely  the  hardest-worked 
women  in  the  community  ;  and  I  knew  one  of  them 
who  used  to  explain  her  repeated  voyages  to  and 
from  Europe  by  declaring  that  the  state-room  of  an 
ocean  steamer  was  literally  the  only  place  that  could 
give  her  twenty-four  hours  of  peace. 

In  all  this  complication  of  labor,  it  must  be  re- 
membered, the  American  woman  of  society  is  placed 
under  greater  hardship  than  any  other;  for  she  un- 
dertakes to  do  without  machinery  what  the  Euro- 
pean woman  docs  with  instrumentalities  that  have 
been  perfected  by  years  of  use.  Let  any  one  read 
the  descriptions  given  by  travellers  of  the  great 
country-houses  in  England,  or  even  read  carefully 


THE    DAUGHTERS    OF   TOIL.  73 

the  recent  papers  in  Harper's  Bazar  upon  the  organi- 
zation of  domestic  service  in  large  households,  and  it 
will  become  plain  that  nothing  but  the  utmost  meth- 
od can  possibly  carry  on  such  an  establishment  with- 
out constant  failure.  In  Europe  that  method  is 
easily  provided,  because  money  can  at  once  secure  a 
retinue  of  servants,  each  of  whom  knows  his  place  ; 
and  it  can,  moreover,  provide  a  house-keeper  or 
major-domo  who  will  keep  everybody  to  his  work. 
The  trouble  here  is  that  no  money  can  buy  such  an 
organization,  and  nine-tenths  of  the  labor  of  forming 
it  comes  upon  the  lady  of  the  house.  A  young  college 
graduate,  taken  suddenly  from  the  laboratory  and 
placed  at  the  head  of  a  great  factory  in  which  he  finds 
no  foreman  and  no  overlookers,  is  not  so  helpless  as 
a  young  girl  taken  suddenly  from  the  ballroom  and 
placed  at  the  head  of  ten  or  a  dozen  servants,  in  a 
beautiful  house,  with  a  "social  position"  awaiting 
her.  For  there  actually  are  foremen  and  overlook- 
ers somewhere  in  the  community,  and  an  energetic 
young  man  Avith  money  at  command  can  find  them. 
But  no  wealth  can  obtain  for  the  American  lady 
that  admirable  and  perfect  being,  the  English  house- 
keeper, so  completely  adjusted  to  her  environment 
that  she  seems  as  if  she  must  have  been  created  on 
purpose,  and  sent  straight  down  from  heaven  in 
a  black  silk  gown,  to  stand  behind  lier  mistress's 
chair,  looking  more  stately  than  her  mistress  even 


74  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

when  she  says,  with  dignified  deference,  "As  you 
please,  ma'am." 

And  as  with  the  English  house-keeper,  so  with 
those  who  are  to  work  under  her ;  each  is  supposed 
to  know  his  place,  and  practically  does  know  it ; 
there  is  no  disputing,  as  sometimes  in  America,  as 
to  which  of  two  or  three  men-servants  ought  to 
fetch  a  glass  of  water.  I  am  far  from  asserting 
that  this  perfection  of  domestic  service  is  the  high- 
est test  of  social  progress ;  but  it  is  thus  far  the 
only  condition  that  can  save  the  lady  of  the  house 
from  being  prematurely  worn  out.  It  remains  to 
be  seen  whether  American  wealth  and  American 
ingenuity  can  combine  to  solve  this  problem  anew, 
and  releas'e  "  society  women "  from  something  of 
their  tremendous  drudgery.  And  it  needs  to  be 
solved  without  delay,  since  in  all  our  summer  re- 
sorts, as  they  develop,  the  cottager  is  replacing  the 
old-time  boarder — a  gain  to  the  guests,  but  destruc- 
tive to  the  hostess,  who,  after  keeping  house  all 
winter  under  great  difficulties,  has  to  do  the  same 
thing  all  summer  under  greater.  All  others  find  in 
her  charming  hospitality  a  delightful  exchange  for 
the  noise  and  hurry  of  the  hotel.  But  who  pays 
the  price  of  it  ?  What  is  to  become  of  the  Daugh- 
ters of  Toil? 


XV. 
THE  EMPIRE  OF  MANNERS. 

How  delightful  it  is,  when  about  to  be  shut  up 
for  a  week  or  two  on  board  ship,  or  in  a  country 
hotel,  with  a  party  of  strangers,  to  encounter  in  that 
company  even  one  person  of  delightful  manners, 
whose  mere  presence  gives  grace  and  charm,  and 
secures  unfailing  consideration  for  the  rights  and 
tastes  of  all !  "  I  have  once  beheld  on  earth,"  says 
Petrarch,  in  his  123d  sonnet,  "  angelic  rhanncrs  and 
celestial  charms,  whose  very  remembrance  is  a  delight 
and  an  affliction,  since  it  makes  all  things  else  ap- 
pear but  dream  and  shadow."  Most  of  us  have  in 
memory  some  such  charms  and  manners,  not  neces- 
sarily associated  with  poetic  heroines,  and  still  less 
with  the  highest  social  position.  We  recall  them 
as  something  whose  mere  presence  made  life  more 
worth  living;  as  distinct  an  enrichment  of  nature 
as  fragrant  violet  beds  or  the  robin's  song.  All  life 
is  sweetened,  joys  are  enhanced,  cares  diminished, 
by  the  presence  in  the  room  of  a  single  person  of 
charming  manners. 

How  shall  such  manners  be  obtained?     Art  and 


76  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

habit  and  the  mere  desire  to  please  may  do  some- 
thing, but  not  supply  the  place  of  a  defective  foun- 
dation. Nobody  has  ever  summed  up  the  different 
types  of  good  manners  so  well  as  Tennyson  : 

"  Kind  nature  is  the  best :  those  manners  next 
That  fit  us  like  a  nature  second-hand; 
Which  are  indeed  the  manners  of  the  great." 

It  is  curious  how  Americans  in  Europe  vibrate  be- 
tween their  French  and  English  predilections,  feel- 
ing the  attractiveness  of  the  French  courtesy,  and 
yet  sometimes  wondering  whether  it  is  more  than 
skin-deep,  and  looking  back  in  regret  to  the  English 
method,  which,  if  blunt,  is  at  least  sincere.  But 
when,  as  may  happen,  the  French  manner  has  a 
basis  of  real  sincerity,  how  delightful  the  result! 
A  charming  American  woman,  the  late  Mrs.  Sidney 
Brooks  of  New  York,  who  retained  into  age  all  the 
attractiveness  and  much  even  of  the  physical  beauty 
of  her  youth,  once  told  me  that  the  secret  of  the 
invariable  popularity  of  the  celebrated  Madame  Re- 
camicr  was  that  she  really  felt  the  universal  kind- 
liness she  expressed.  Mrs.  Brooks  had  been  in  youth 
a  great  favorite  of  this  distinguished  French  woman, 
and  had  been  admitted  to  her  society  at  ail  times,  ex- 
cept when  the  appearance  of  a  large  pair  of  wooden 
sabots,  or  overshoes,  outside  the  door  of  the  bou- 
doir announced  that  the  venerable  author  M.  de 


THE    EMPIRE    OF    MANNERS.  77 

Chateaubriand  was  having  an  interview.  She  said 
that  at  Madame  Recamicv's  receptions  it  was  always 
understood  that  the  friends  of  the  hostess  must 
amuse  one  another,  leaving  her  wholly  free  to  attend 
to  "her  strangers" — mes  etrangers,  she  called  them 
— who,  precisely  because  they  were  such,  needed 
all  the  special  attention  that  could  be  given  them. 
This  was  surely  to  unite  Tennyson's  two  types  of 
manners — the  artificial  and  the  natural — in  one. 

But  if  no  manners  are  enough  which  have  not 
the  foundation  of  true  and  simple  feeling,  neither 
is  it  safe  to  rely  on  that  alone.  The  traditions  and 
habits  of  society  arc  to  a  great  extent  what  might 
be  called  funded  or  accumulated  good  feeling;  they 
are  largely  the  product  of  long  years  of  experience, 
which  have  brought  to  perfection  the  art  of  avoiding 
awkwardness  and  simplifying  all  procedure.  Some 
of  them  are  "survivals"  from  old  times  of  hate  and 
violence — as  the  grasp  of  the  ungloved  right  hand 
implied  the  laying  aside  of  the  sword,  and  the  wine 
pledge  was  the  proof  that  there  was  no  guile  in  the 
cup.  Others  belong  to  modern  intercourse  only,  and 
have  followed  the  changes  of  society.  The  former 
practice  of  waiting  before  eating  until  all  at  table 
were  helped  was  doubtless  the  remains  of  the  first 
struggle  with  barbarous  appetite  for  self-control; 
and  this  being  once  attained,  the  more  recent  habit 
followed,  that  each  should  begin  when  helped,  and 


78  WOMEN    AND    BIEX. 

so  avoid  the  awkwardness  of  a  delay.  These  things 
must  be  to  some  degree  conventionally  learned,  be- 
cause they  represent  not  only  good  feeling-,  but 
historic  changes  and  social  development.  There  is 
generally  some  reason  at  the  bottom  of  all  of  them, 
but  there  is  not  time  always  to  explain,  and  it  great- 
ly facilitates  that  social  ease  which  is  the  object 
really  aimed  at,  to  accept  the  habits  of  society  as 
they  are  ;  and  not,  for  instance,  to  insist  on  calling 
for  fish  with  your  dessert  at  a  dinner-party,  merely 
because  you  happen  to  fancy  that  combination. 

Many  an  ardent  and  zealous  young  reformer  of- 
fends the  very  world  he  is  burning  to  reform  when 
he  refuses  to  meet  it  with  some  slight  compliance  ; 
as  Felix  Holt,  in  George  Eliot's  story,  was  willing 
to  die  for  the  improvement  of  society,  but  could  by 
no  means  consent  to  wear  a  cravat  for  its  sake. 
Manners  come  next  to  morals,  not  alone  because 
they  help  us  to  make  the  world  plcasanter,  and 
thus  render  life  easier  to  all  around  us,  but  also  be- 
cause they  afford  a  key  to  those  greater  successes 
and  usefulnesses  for  which  all  generous  persons 
long.  And  their  domain  goes  beyond  this  world ; 
for  if  the  utmost  saint  makes  himself  personally  re- 
pulsive, he  so  far  diminishes  our  desire  to  meet 
him  in  any  land  of  pure  delights.  Miss  Edgcworth 
says  in  "  Helen "  that  any  one  who  makes  good- 
ness disagreeable  commits  high-treason  against  virt- 


THE    EMPIRE    OF    MANNERS.  79 

tie  ;  and  I  remember  liow  elevated  a  doctrine  it 
seemed  to  me  Avhcn  I  heard  one  of  my  ignorant 
black  sergeants  say,  in  a  prayer  I  accidentally  over- 
heard, "  Let  me  so  live  dat  when  I  die  I  may  hab 
manners,  dat  I  may  know  what  to  say  when  I  see 
my  heabcnly  Lord !" 


XVI. 
UNREASONABLE  UNSELFISHNESS. 

WHEN  some  eloquent  clergyman  preaches  a  ser- 
mon on  unselfishness  so  powerful  and  searching  that, 
as  his  hearers  say,  "  It  goes  right  down  into  every 
pew,"  the  melancholy  fact  remains  that  the  person 
it  hits  is  apt  to  be  just  the  person  who  needs  it 
least,  and  who  would  be  more  benefited  by  a  moral 
discourse  tending  in  just  the  other  direction.  Or 
when  the  lecturer  on  Ethical  Culture  handles  the 
same  theme  in  an  equally  ardent  manner,  rebaptizing 
the  old-fashioned  virtue  under  the  modern  name  of 
"  altruism,"  the  effect  is  very  often  just  the  same. 
Saint  or  scientist,  the  result  is  likely  to  be  this,  that 
the  comfortable  sinner,  who  has  been  conveniently 
selfish  all  his  life,  sheds  the  exhortation  as  easily  as 
a  duck's  back  disposes  of  the  water ;  while  all  the 
duty  of  "unselfishness,"  or  "altruism,"  as  we  may 
please  to  call  it,  continues  to  be  done,  as  heretofore, 
by  the  quiet,  uncomplaining  personage  in  some  other 
part  of  the  pew.  He  or  she — more  frequently  she 
— is  the  only  one  whom  the  arrow  of  exhortation 
has  really  reached ;  and  while  every  sinner  of  the 


UNREASONABLE    UNSELFISHNESS.  81 

family  goes  home  and  eats  a  comfortable  dinner  un- 
disturbed, the  single  saint  is  found  fasting  and  pray- 
ing, and  lies  awake  that  night  trying  to  devise  some 
new  point  at  which  she  can  incur  martyrdom. 

AVhen  shall  we  recognize  that  while  the  greater 
part  of  the  world  may  be  guilty  of  selfishness,  there 
arc  always  many  who  need  rather  to  be  condemned 
for  an  unreasonable  unselfishness,  which  mars  their 
own  lives,  and  also  demoralizes  those  of  other  peo- 
ple? Who  knows  but  Blue-Beard  himself  might 
have  turned  out  a  decent  domestic  character,  and  have 
had  his  life  cherished  by  his  brothers-in-law,  had  lie 
encountered  a  spirited  resistance,  instead  of  weak 
concession,  from  some  of  his  earlier  wives  ?  How 
much  of  the  usefulness  of  Socrates  may  have  been 
due  to  the  wholesome  rasping  that  he  received  from 
that  friend  of  her  race,  Xantippc  !  Husbands  spoil 
wives,  wives  ruin  husbands,  sisters  are  absolutely  de- 
structive to  the  characters  of  brothers,  and  it  is  said 
that  brothers  in  some  instances  have  actually  been 
injurious  to  sisters,  by  unmitigated  petting  under 
the  specious  name  of  unselfishness.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  physicians  generally  recommend  a  pro- 
fessional nurse  rather  than  a  member  of  the  family, 
not  so  much  that  the  nurse  is  more  skilful,  but  that 
she  alone  knows  how  to  moderate  her  disinterested- 
ness— to  keep  it  on  tap,  as  it  were,  and  administer  it 
from  time  to  time,  instead  of  pouring  it,  as  the  home 
G 


82  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

nurse  does,  in  one  everlasting  flood.  The  wife  of 
the  nervous  patient  breaks  down  at  last  herself,  the 
daughter  of  the  insane  mother  becomes  herself  in- 
sane, simply  from  prolonged  and  exhausting  care, 
while  a  hired  nurse  would  give  herself  relief.  In 
such  case  the  excessive  unselfishness  defeats  itself; 
it  docs  not  even  benefit  other  people;  it  only  bur- 
dens the  family  at  last  with  two  invalids  instead  of 
one. 

There  is  an  impression  that  it  is  the  highest  imag- 
inable type  of  character  to  merge  all  one's  own 
wishes  and  powers  and  aims  in  the  absorbing  care 
of  other  persons.  Such  is  not,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
my  own  observation.  Self-sacrifice,  like  many  oth- 
er forms  of  diet,  is  a  food  or  a  poison  according  as 
we  use  it.  There  are  those  who  really  carry  it  to  a 
morbid  extent,  and  can  no  more  be  trusted  to  meas- 
ure out  their  own  share  of  it  than  an  opium-cater 
to  write  his  own  prescription.  There  are  families 
where  pastor  and  family  physician  have  to  bestir 
themselves  all  the  time  to  defeat  the  plausible  ex- 
cuses under  which  the  devotees  of  unselfishness  veil 
their  excesses.  They  need  watching  with  unceas- 
ing vigilance,  these  people  who  stoutly  maintain  that 
they  prefer  drumsticks  at  dinner,  and  sleep  best  on 
a  straw  bed.  One  evidence  of  their  growing  de- 
moralization is  the  utter  disintegration  in  their 
characters  of  the  virtue  of  truthfulness.  No  im- 


UNREASONABLE    UNSELFISHNESS.  83 

moderately  unselfish  person  can  be  truthful  at  the 
same  time  ;  they  are  soon  ready  to  deny  that  they 
are  ever  cold  or  hot,  or  hungry  or  thirsty,  or  tired 
— and  this  unblushingly,  in  the  face  of  overwhelm- 
ing evidence.  Nothing  is  too  indigestible  for  them 
to  eat,  in  order  to  save  the  feelings  of  the  cook  ;  and 
they  will  have  the  teething  baby  sleep  with  them 
for  a  dozen  nights  in  succession,  because  dear  Maria, 
his  mother,  really  needs  repose,  and  it  is  a  peculiar- 
ity of  theirs  to  be  able  to  do  without  it.  Truth  is 
considered  by  the  moralists  to  be  a  merit,  as  well 
as  unselfishness ;  but  these  people  simply  lay  it  down, 
during  their  insatiate  pursuit  of  their  favorite  virtue, 
as  rich  people  lay  down  their  carriage — occasionally 
— when  they  go  into  bankruptcy. 

But  such  collateral  faults  are  not  the  whole  evil. 
There  arc  positive  virtues  to  be  cultivated  as  well  as 
the  negative  virtue  of  self-surrender.  It  is  right  to 
do  one's  own  work  in  the  world,  to  develop  one's 
own  powers,  to  exercise  a  tonic  as  well  as  a  sooth- 
ing influence  on  those  around.  That  was  a  pro- 
found remark  which  Charles  Lamb  made  about  him- 
self in  regard  to  his  close  and  arduous  supervision, 
for  many  years,  of  his  partially  insane  sister.  He 
said — I  quote  from  memory — that  though  this  way 
of  life  "  had  saved  him  from  some  vices,  it  had 
also  prevented  the  formation  of  many  virtues."  No 
person  can  spend  the  greater  part  of  his  time  in  a 


84  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

constrained  position,  or  with  a  tight  ligature  round 
some  portion  of  his  body,  without  suffering  sonic 
physical  retribution  ;  and  if  the  constraint  and  re- 
pression are  applied  to  the  mind  instead,  that  also 
suffers.  Every  human  being  is  entitled,  within  cer- 
tain limits,  to  live  his  or  her  own  legitimate  life  ;  and 
though  this  may  easily  be  made  an  excuse  for  the 
basest  selfishness,  the  habit  of  unbroken  self-sacrifice 
brings  perils  of  its  own  just  as  marked,  if  less  igno- 
ble. There  is  a  certain  charm  in  it,  no  doubt — in 
feeling  that  self  is  absolutely  annulled,  that  we  live 
only  for  others,  or  for  some  one  other.  But  this  is, 
after  all,  to  quit  the  helm  of  our  own  life,  so  that 
our  vessel  simply  drifts  before  the  winds  of  destiny. 
The  true  skill  is  seen  when  we  sail  as  closely  as  pos- 
sible in  the  face  of  the  opposing  gale,  and  thus  ex- 
tract motive  power  from  the  greatest  obstacles. 


XVII. 

WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  ON  LITERARY 
STYLE. 

WE  are  fortunate  in  having  from  one  of  the  mas- 
ters of  French  literature,  Fontenelle,  a  felicitous 
statement  of  what  women  had  contributed  up  to 
his  time,  through  men,  in  the  formation  of  literary 
style ;  and  though  the  statement  was  made  more 
than  a  century  ago,  and  made  for  Frenchmen,  it  still 
has  in  it  much  truth  for  all  manner  of  persons. 
Fontenelle,  it  should  be  remembered,  died  in  1757, 
within  a  month  of  completing  his  hundred  years, 
and  without  the  slightest  impairing  of  his  vivacity 
and  keenness  of  mind.  His  bodily  powers  had  suf- 
fered just  enough  to  make  him  apologize  at  ninety- 
five  for  not  stooping  to  pick  up  a  lady's  fan  with 
quite  the  agility  of  eighty  years;  but  his  very  in- 
firmities, such  as  they  were,  were  only  material  for 
witticisms ;  and  he  remarked  when  dying,  "  I  am 
not  in  pain,  but  I  am  troubled  with  a  sort  of  diffi- 
culty in  existing"  (Je  ne  souffre  pas,  mais  je  sens 
une  certaine  dijficulte  d'etre).  And  this  vivacious 
old  man,  who  had  seen  the  flowering  and  fruitage 


86  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

of  the  literature  of  a  century,  gave  this  as  his  opin- 
ion about  the  comparative  contributions  of  the  two 
sexes:  "For  solidity  of  reasoning,  force,  and  depth, 
inen  alone  are  sufficient  \il  nefaut  que  des  homines]. 
For  a  natural  elegance  [line  elegance  na'ive],  for  a 
fine  and  piquant  simplicity,  for  the  delicate  recogni- 
tion of  the  proprieties,  and  for  a  certain  flower  of 
wit  [une  certaine  fleur  d'esprit],  you  must  have  men 
who  have  been  polished  by  the  society  of  women." 

It  was,  to  be  sure,  Fontenclle  who  said  on  another 
occasion  that  there  were  three  things  which  he  had 
always  loved  very  much  without  knowing  anything 
about  them — music,  poetry,  and  women  ;  yet  here 
he  showed  that  lie  knew  something  of  women,  at 
least  in  their  influence  on  men.  As  a  member  of 
the  famous  French  Academy,  the  "  Forty  Immor- 
tals " — on  his  election  among  whom  he  pleased  him- 
self with  the  thought  that  there  were  now  only 
thirty-nine  men  in  France  who  were  wiser  than  him- 
self— he  had  reason  to  recognize  what  women  had 
done  for  French  literature.  The  Academic  itself, 
the  chief  literary  association  of  the  world,  grew  in- 
directly out  of  an  association  of  women.  When  in 
1600  the  beautiful  Catherine  de'  Pisani  was  married 
to  the  Marquis  de  Rambouillet,  and  changed  the 
name  of  the  great  mansion  which  had  borne  her 
Italian  mother's  name  to  that  of  Hotel  de  Ram- 
bouillet,  she  there  began  a  scries  of  literary  rccep- 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  ON  LITERARY  STYLE.    87 

tions  which  lasted  half  a  century,  and  have  been 
the  model  of  all  such  gatherings  ever  since.  There 
Corneille  read  his  tragedies  before  their  public  rep- 
resentation, and  Bossuct  preached  there  his  first  ser- 
mon. Out  of  the  conversations  at  the  Hotel  do 
Rambouillct,  in  the  desire  to  create  something  a 
little  more  solid,  grew  the  meetings  of  literary  men 
which  Cardinal  Richelieu  organized  into  the  French 
Academy.  Though  this  was  wholly  a  masculine 
body,  its  first  prize  was  awarded  to  an  essay  by  a 
woman,  Mademoiselle  De  Scudery,  and  its  great 
work,  the  French  Dictionary,  was  initiated  by  a  lit- 
erary body  of  some  eight  hundred  ladies,  known  as 
the  Precieuses,  and  afterwards  satirized  by  Moliere. 
They  had  two  aims — to  drive  out  indelicate  expres- 
sions, in  which  for  a  time  they  succeeded,  and  to 
reform  French  spelling  so  that  words  should  be 
spelled  as  they  were  pronounced.  At  one  of  their 
literary  meetings  Madame  Lcroi  told  M.  Lcclerc, 
then  secretary  of  the  Academy,  that  all  French 
spelling  needed  to  be  simplified,  and  he  accordingly 
took  a  pen,  while  the  ladies  proceeded  to  make  out 
a  long  list  of  words,  which  is  still  preserved,  antici- 
pating the  very  changes  that  at  last,  under  Voltaire, 
came  to  be  generally  accepted,  and  determined  the 
modern  French  orthography.  Alas!  English  spell- 
ing still  awaits  the  eight  hundred  women  who  shall 
sc  it  back  to  common-sense. 


88  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

Since  Fontenelle's  day  women  have  begun  to  show 
what  they  could  do  personally  in  the  way  of  literary 
style,  besides  acting  through  men.  With  George 
Sand  and  George  Eliot  to  represent  their  sex,  it  is 
clear  that  woman's  contribution  is  now  direct  as 
well  as  indirect.  With  the  advance  of  higher  edu- 
cation and  the  incentive  of  magazine  opportunities, 
we  may  gradually  expect  results  such  as  these  two 
fine  writers  only  prefigure.  When  we  consider  how 
rare  in  printed  literature  are  the  qualities  we  often 
find  in  women's  letters — the  wit,  the  grace,  the  dar- 
ing, the  incisivencss,  the  "  lyric  glimpses  " — it  is  cer- 
tain that  there  is  more  to  come  hereafter  from  that 
direction.  The  elaborate  descriptions  of  nature  or 
society  in  the  literary  man's  book  are  often  not  half 
so  good  as  the  dashing  delineations  of  the  same 
thing  in  his  wife's  correspondence,  from  which  he 
perhaps  drew  his  materials.  I  still  remember  with 
a  fraternal  pride  which  was,  I  fear,  a  substitute  for 
all  shame,  that  the  one  passage  which  was  applaud- 
ed in  my  Commencement  oration  on  leaving  Har- 
vard College  was  contributed  by  my  elder  sister. 
Perhaps  if  all  college  boys  made  similar  confessions, 
we  should  get  some  additional  light  as  to  the  influ- 
ence of  women  on  style. 

Nor  is  it  altogether  a  disadvantage  to  literature, 
I  suspect,  that  women  have  been  kept  out  of  aca- 
demic education  while  it  was  narrow  and  pedantic, 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  ON  LITERAKY  STYLE.     89 

and  arc  now  being  admitted  to  it  after  it  has  be- 
come more  truly  liberal.  An  extremely  clever  wom- 
an, Mrs.  Mary  Astcll,  who  wrote  "A  Defense  of  the 
Female  Sex"  nearly  two  centuries  ago  (1G97)  in 
England,  puts  this  point  in  a  very  lively  way.  "I 
have  often  thought,"  she  says,  "that  the  not  teach- 
ing Women  Latin  and  Greek  was  an  advantage  to 
them,  if  it  were  rightly  consider'd,  and  might  be 
improv'd  to  a  great  length.  For  Girlcs  after  they 
can  Read  and  Write  (if  they  be  of  any  Fashion)  are 
taught  such  things  as  take  not  up  their  whole  time, 
and  not  being  suffer'd  to  move  about  at  liberty  as 
Boys,  are  furnish'd  among  other  Toys  with  Books, 
such  as  Romances,  Novels,  Plays,  and  Poems,  which 
though  they  read  carelessly  only  for  Diversion,  yet 
unawares  to  them  give  'cm  very  early  a  considerable 
Command  both  of  Words  and  Sense;  which  arc 
further  improved  by  their  making  and  receiving 
Visits  with  their  Mothers,  which  gives  them  betimes 
the  opportunity  of  imitating,  conversing  with,  and 
knowing  the  manner  and  address  of  older  Per- 
sons."* 

*  "Defense,"  etc.,  p.  57. 


XVIII. 
THE   SINGLE  WILL. 

IN  an  interesting  paper  on  "  Marriage  and  the 
Family,"  by  Hermann  Lotzc,  lately  translated  by  Pro- 
fessor Ladd,  of  Yale  University,  there  may  be  found 
some  very  liberal  views,  for  a  German,  in  regard  to 
marriage.  He  readily  admits  that  "  nothing  but  the 
ancient  depreciation  of  the  female  sex  could  lead  to 
the  thought  of  a  patria  })otestas  (paternal  authority), 
which  ascribed  to  the  father  the  unconditional  right 
over  the  child's  life  and  death."  lie  defines  marriage 
as  being  a  complete  surrender  of  personality  in  re- 
spect to  what  is  most  peculiar  to  this  personality, 
namely,  the  body  ;  but  instead  of  making  this  a 
wholly  one-sided  surrender,  as  has  been  too  common 
with  both  civil  and  religious  writers,  he  makes  it  dis- 
tinctly and  explicitly  mutual.  lie  finely  says,  fol- 
lowing Kant  in  this,  that  "  this  complete  surrender 
works  no  detriment  to  personal  honor  only  in  case 
it  is  returned  by  just  as  complete  and  unreserved 
surrender  of  the  other  personality  in  relation  to  all 
the  interests  of  life."  From  tins  he  concludes,  first, 
that  marriage  must  be  no  temporary  union,  but  a 


THE    SINGLE    WILL.  91 

fellowship  of  the  whole  life,  of  all  human  and  di- 
vine interests ;  and  then  that  only  monogamy  cor- 
responds to  this  ideal. 

All  this  is  afterwards  summed  up  by  him  as  "the 
perfect  moral  equivalence  of  the  two  partners  in 
marriage ;"  and  it  is  rather  a  disappointment  when 
we  find  him,  nevertheless,  declaring  that  this  equiv- 
alence "  does  not  annul  the  necessity  that  a  single 
will  must  decide  in  relation  to  the  externalities  of 
the  conduct  of  life."  What  he  afterwards  says  un- 
der this  head  seems  a  little  indistinct,  and  might  be 
variously  interpreted ;  but  this  general  proposition, 
heard  so  often  from  the  lips  of  mediocre  men,  seems 
a  little  unworthy  of  the  strength  and  fearlessness 
of  Lotze.  It  is  my  experience  that  the  men  who 
talk  in  this  way,  and  who  dwell  on  the  companion 
conviction  that  "  a  woman  is  never  so  well  off  as 
when  she  finds  a  strong  man  to  rule  her,"  do  not 
belong  in  general  to  the  strongest  class  of  men.  A 
man  of  really  large  and  broad  force  likes  to  find 
some  companion  quality  in  the  partner  of  his  life, 
as  Shakespeare's  Brutus  found  it  in  Portia: 

"  0  ye  gods, 
Render  me  worthy  of  this  noble  wife !" 

It  is  rather  the  man  failing  to  impress  his  own  in- 
dividuality on  the  world  outside  who  insists  on  mak- 
ing the  most  of  it  by  his  own  fireside,  and  at  least 


92  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

posing  as  a  little  monarch  there.  A  weak  wife  will 
sometimes  be  happy  in  being  crushed  by  such  a  fire- 
side despot ;  and  a  strong  and  good-natured  wife 
will  smile  inwardly  while  she  listens  to  the  lofty 
words  of  a  husband  whom  she  perhaps  winds  round 
her  finger.  But  neither  of  these  represents  the 
ideal  household.  That  is  found  only  where  the 
"moral  equivalence  of  the  two  partners"  is  recog- 
nized through  everything,  and  they  learn  to  harmo- 
nize into  one  joint  power,  or  else  by  mutual  agree- 
ment assign  to  each  a  separate  portion  of  the  sway. 
This  is  now  partially  recognized  by  our  courts,  in 
regard  to  the  custody  of  the  children,  for  instance ; 
and  there  are  probably  few  judges  within  the  United 
States  who  would  go  as  far  as  that  Canada  judge 
who  lately  ruled  that  a  mother  had  no  legal  right  to 
the  custody  of  her  child  so  long  as  her  husband 
lived,  although  that  husband  had  long  deserted  both 
her  and  the  child.  It  is  more  and  more  recognized 
also  in  respect  to  the  management  of  property. 
This  joint  control  of  the  two  most  important  pos- 
sessions is  a  recognition  of  the  possibility  of  equal 
alliances  where  neither  party  shall  have  absolute 
sway.  That  this  is  perfectly  practicable  in  the  af- 
fairs of  common  life  is  shown  by  the  vast  multitude 
of  business  partnerships  between  two  persons,  nei- 
ther of  whom  claims  to  control  the  other.  Enor- 
mous commercial  responsibilities,  involving  delicate 


THE    SIXGLE    WILL.  93 

and  complicated  decisions,  are  often  vested  in  two 
persons  who  have  to  rely  solely  on  mutual  confi- 
dence to  settle  all  differences  of  opinion.  It  is  not 
found  necessary  to  reason  abstractly  that  govern- 
ment must  be  in  the  hands  of  one  person,  and  that 
therefore  the  one  partner  must  be  an  autocrat  and 
the  other  a  figure-head  only,  ^ye  thus  know  that 
in  the  most  active  business  of  life — that,  indeed, 
which  is  technically  and  habitually  called  "  business," 
as  if  it  were  the  only  serious  matter — things  may 
be  as  well  managed  by  two  heads  as  by  one.  In- 
deed the  assumption  is  that  the  two  heads  will  be 
even  better  than  one,  as  the  common  proverb  goes, 
for  purposes  of  consultation  ;  and  where  final  action 
is  needed,  it  can  be  delegated  by  mutual  agreement 
to  the  one  or  the  other. 

Now  if  two  business  partners,  coming  together 
with  only  material  interests  at  stake,  can  thus  work 
successfully  on  what  may  be  called  the  two-headed 
plan,  why  is  it  not  to  be  expected  that  two  married 
persons  can  do  it?  They  meet,  as  Lotze  says,  in 
"  perfect  moral  equivalence,"  as  do  the  business 
partners;  they  have  to  unite  them  all  the  com- 
mon interests  which  business  partners  share;  but 
they  have,  unlike  business  partners,  the  whole  realm 
of  sentiment  and  association  and  parentage  and 
household  life  to  hold  them  in  harmony.  Their 
success,  if  they  succeed,  is  a  success  far  more  impor- 


94  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

tant  to  their  happiness  than  any  business  triumph  ; 
their  failure,  if  they  fail,  is  more  disastrous  than  a 
whole  scries  of  mercantile  bankruptcies.  Under 
ordinary  circumstances  they  can  go  on  by  mutual 
agreement;  in  extraordinary  circumstances  they 
must  consent,  as  business  partners  do,  to  delegate 
the  decision  by  the  same  mutual  agreement  to  that 
one  for  whom  it  is  most  obviously  fitting,  or  who 
has  most  at  stake.  In  most  families  this  is  already 
done,  so  far  as  concerns  the  broad  general  method 
of  letting  the  husband  decide  on  the  domicile,  and 
the  wife  as  to  the  care  of  children.  Even  here  the 
two  things  intermingle,  since  in  a  proposed  change 
of  domicile  the  welfare  of  the  children  is  one  of 
the  most  important  elements.  It  is  difficult  to 
think  of  anything,  even  the  investment  of  money, 
in  which  the  habits  of  modern  life  do  not  recognize 
that  the  wife  as  well  as  the  husband  has  some  con- 
ecru.  The  main  thing  is  to  remember  that  marriage 
is,  as  Lotzc  points  out,  a  mutual  surrender,  and  that 
the  two  partners  are  morally  equivalent.  This 
should  be  the  standard ;  and  not  that  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Sapsea  in  Dickcns's  story,  who  recorded 
upon  his  wife's  tombstone  that  he  had  "  never  met 
with  a  spirit  more  capable  of — looking  up  to  him  !" 


XIX. 
ON  A  CERTAIN  HUMILITY  IN  AMERICANS. 

IT  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  Lowell's  paper  on 
the  condescension  of  foreigners  should  be  followed 
by  one  on  the  humility  of  Americans.  It  may  be 
that  we  do  not  make  that  quality  obtrusive  when 
travelling  abroad,  for  there  we  are  frequently  stung 
and  goaded  out  of  this  fine  constitutional  trait. 
"My  dear  young  lady,"  said  the  kind  English 
clergyman  to  a  certain  American  traveller  in  Eu- 
rope, "  let  me  urge  you  not  to  make  use  of  that 
word  unless  you  are  willing  to  be  known  as  an 
American."  "But  suppose,"  said  her  mother, 
"  that  my  daughters  have  no  objection  to  being 
known  as  Americans,  what  then  ?"  To  this  the 
good  man  had  no  answer  ready,  as  it  was  a  con- 
tingency he  had  not  foreseen.  In  such  cases  the 
bruised  Yankee  will  turn  upon  his  assailant ;  nor 
does  lie  always  fail  to  offer  the  original  provoca- 
tion. But  it  is  chiefly  at  home  and  in  our  dealings 
with  foreigners  that  the  constitutional  humility  as- 
serts itself. 

It  is  needless  to  deny  that  many  or  most  of  our 


96  "WOMEN    AND   MEN". 

foreign  visitors  are  persons  of  fairly  good  manners. 
It  was  especially  to  be  noticed,  in  the  large  company 
of  scientific  men  who  visited  the  United  States  a 
few  years  ago,  what  simplicity  and  modesty  marked 
the  most  eminent.  Yet  taking  a  whole  year's  yield, 
so  to  speak,  of  foreign  arrivals,  how  much  discrim- 
ination is  needed,  and  how  little  we  make !  There 
is  something  admirable  in  the  meekness  with  which 
we  associate,  on  equal  or  even  deferential  terms, 
with  persons  of  a  far  lower  grade  of  courtesy  than 
that  to  which  we  arc  accustomed — provided  they 
come  in  under  the  laws  of  hospitality.  Who  has 
not  dined  in  company  with  some  travelling  English- 
man, perhaps  a  man  of  note,  whose  manners  were 
so  intolerable  that,  as  a  Boston  woman  said  lately  on 
one  occasion,  they  justified  dynamite  ?  And  who  has 
not  lived  to  sec  the  same  person's  book  of  travels, 
in  which  he  kindly  gave  his  own  verdict  of  approval 
or  condemnation  of  the  society  which  had  made  an 
exception  from  its  general  standard  of  good-breed- 
ing when  it  admitted  him?  Who  has  not  heard 
some  English  lecturer,  while  coiling  and  uncoiling 
himself  into  and  out  of  positions  of  inconceivable 
awkwardness,  dole  out  elementary  lessons  on  liter- 
ature and  science,  as  it  were  in  words  of  one  syllabic, 
to  audiences  which  had  heard  these  same  themes 
discussed  by  Agassiz  or  Rogers  or  Holmes?  And 
who  has  not  subsequently  read  that  worthy  man's 


ON    A    CERTAIN    HUMILITY    IN    AMERICANS.     97 

book  or  magazine  essay,  in  which  he  perhaps  bcnig- 
nantly  complimented  the  intelligence  of  his  audience 
— an  intelligence  which  he  never  could  fairly  com- 
pute, since  he  never  found  out  how  it  had  criticised 
him.  I  forget  which  of  these  excellent  gentlemen  it 
was  who  gravely  recommended  to  the  good  people 
of  Boston  a  wholly  new  means  of  mental  improve- 
ment— reading  aloud  in  the  evening!  What  is  it 
that  carries  us  calmly  through  these  inflictions? 
No  doubt  good-nature  has  something  to  do  with  it, 
and  the  feeling  of  hospitality  ;  but  it  is  also  largely 
due  to  the  tradition  of  humility,  the  habit  of  think- 
ing that  light  and  grace  come  from  Europe — ex 
oriente  lux. 

"\Ve  early  overcame  this  humility  in  political  mat- 
ters, because  it  took  a  race  of  strong  men  to  free  us 
from  the  parental  yoke,  and  we  recognized  their 
strength ;  but  literature  and  art  and  science  and  re- 
fined manners  come  more  slowly,  and  in  these  we 
do  not  yet  trust  ourselves.  That  was  true  of  our 
early  days  which  Aulus  Gellius  quotes  Cato  as  say- 
ing of  early  Rome  :  "  Poetry  was  not  held  in  honor  ; 
if  any  one  devoted  himself  to  it,  or  went  about  to 
banquets,  he  was  called  a  vagabond"  (grassator 
vocabatur}.  Hence  we  were  slower  to  assert  ourselves 
in  these  finer  arts,  and  when  we  did,  it  was  with  be- 
coming modesty.  It  was  thought  daring  in  Emer- 
son to  sing  of  the  bumblebee,  or  Lowell  of  the 
7 


98  WOMEN"    AND    MEN. 

bobolink ;  as  for  Whittier,  who  had  never  even 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  how  could  he  sing  at  all  ? 
Especially  in  the  realm  of  manners  this  humility 
has  prevailed.  During  the  last  French  Empire  it 
used  to  be  held  at  Newport  and  New  York  that 
there  was  no  standard  of  good-breeding  but  in  Paris, 
as  if  the  best-bred  American  society  were  not  of 
older  tradition  as  well  as  better  strain  than  the 
dynasty  of  the  Napoleons.  The  truth  is  that  the 
finest  American  manners  are  indigenous,  not  import- 
ed. You  will  find  such  manners  in  little  towns  in 
Virginia  and  Kentucky,  where  not  a  person  has  ever 
seen  Europe,  and  where  to  have  been  to  Philadel- 
phia or  New  York  is  to  be  a  great  traveller.  Never 
have  I  seen  more  truly  gracious  and  dignified  man- 
ners than  in  the  little  Boston  and  Cambridge  of  my 
youth,  among  ladies  mostly  untravclled,  and  speak- 
ing no  language  but  their  own.  The  Italian  refugee 
Gallcnga,  formerly  Mariotti,  has  lately  borne  testi- 
mony to  their  social  standard  and  to  the  conceited 
familiarity  with  which  he  repaid  it.  Their  bearing- 
would  have  fully  justified  such  unflinching  patriot- 
ism as  that  of  Senator  Tracy,  of  Connecticut,  when, 
at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  the  British  Minister 
expressed  his  admiration  for  Mrs.  Oliver  Wolcott,  of 
Litchfield,  Connecticut,  wife  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  "Your  countrywoman,"  said  the  Eng- 
lishman, "  would  be  admired  at  the  court  of  St. 


OX    A    CERTAIN    HUMILITY    IN   AMERICANS.     99 

James."    "  Sir,"  said  the  sturdy  American,  "  she  is 
admired  even  on  Litchfield  Hill." 

There  is  no  occasion  for  any  petty  prejudice 
against  European  science  or  art  or  literature  or 
manners ;  all  nations  can  learn  of  each  other,  and  we 
as  the  younger  nation  have  more  to  learn,  in  many 
ways,  than  to  teach.  The  nations  of  Europe  are 
the  elder  sons  of  Time;  but  the  youngest-born  are 
also  sons.  It  was  not  mere  imitation  that  gave  us 
Morse's  telegraph,  or  Bell's  telephone,  or  Emerson's 
books,  or  Lowell's  speeches,  or  the  American  trot- 
ting horse,  or  those  illustrated  magazines  that  are 
printed  for  two  continents.  I  heard  the  most  emi- 
nent of  English  electricians  say,  a  few  years  ago, 
that  he  had  learned  more  of  the  possible  applica- 
tions of  electricity  during  his  first  fortnight  in  this 
country  than  in  his  whole  life  before.  When  I 
spoke  to  Mr.  Darwin  of  the  Peabody  Museum  at 
Yale  College,  he  said,  "Huxley  tells  me  that  there 
is  more  to  be  learned  from  that  museum  than  from 
all  the  museums  of  Europe."  I  do  not  urge  a  fool- 
ish insulation  from  England  and  Germany,  Italy  and 
France,  but  only  to  remember  that  what  we  need  is 
not  imitation,  but  growth ;  that  a  healthy  growth 
implies  a  certain  self-reliance;  and  that  strength, 
like  charity,  begins  at  home. 


XX. 

"  QUITE  RUSTIC." 

THERE  lies  before  me  a  letter  from  one  of  those 
women  who  are  doing  more,  as  I  sometimes  think, 
to  mould  the  future  of  America  than  any  other  class 
of  women,  or  than  any  men.  They  are  the  higher 
grade  of  teachers  in  the  high-schools,  academies,  and 
colleges  of  our  Western  States.  They  are  as  well 
trained,  intellectually,  for  the  most  part,  as  their  sis- 
ters of  the  Eastern  States,  have  quite  as  often  had 
the  advantages  of  foreign  travel ;  and  derive  from 
the  life  of  newer  communities,  and  from  the  more 
varied  material  under  their  charge  a  certain  breadth 
of  view  and  freedom  from  tradition  which  are  rarer 
at  the  East.  The  Eastern  colleges,  and  conspicu- 
ously Wellesley,  draw  much  of  their  supply  of  teach- 
ers from  this  class,  who  thus  give  back  to  the  East 
that  benefit  of  culture  which  was  formerly  supposed 
to  flow  westward.  Thus  much  for  my  authority ; 
the  passage  in  the  letter  that  most  strikes  me  is  this ; 
"  We  have  in  school  a  lovely  girl  from  the  country. 
She  is  rustic,  shy,  lovely,  and  dainty.  She  reminds 
me  of  what  Ruskin  says  somewhere,  that  perhaps 


"QUITE  RUSTIC."  101 

the  time  will  come  when  we  shall  say,  '  He  has 
beautiful  manners ;  he  is  really  quite  rustic.'  " 

I  dare  say  that  this  writer  may  not  know,  for  she 
may  not  have  been  in  France  just  at  that  time,  how 
a  good  deal  of  what  Rusk  in  suggests  as  possible 
became  actual  during  the  last  French  Empire.  A 
friend  of  mine  who  was  in  Paris  during  that  period 
was  repeating  to  an  accomplished  Frenchman  a 
delicate  witticism.  "Ha!"  said  his  hearer,  "that 
.is  admirable — that  smacks  of  the  provinces"  (cela 
sent  les  provinces).  My  friend  expressed  surprise  at 
the  remark,  having  always  supposed  that,  to  a  Pa- 
risian, all  that  was  provincial  seemed  dull  or  vulgar; 
but  his  companion  explained  that  so  many  of  the 
more  refined  and  cultivated  families  had  confined 
themselves  to  their  country  residences  in  order  to 
escape  the  carnival  of  vulgar  wealth  under  Louis 
Napoleon,  that  it  had  become  the  habit  to  attribute 
any  very  fine  touch  of  wit  or  manners  to  the  coun- 
try instead  of,  as  formerly,  to  the  city.  In  lluskin's 
phrase,  these  things  were  considered  "  really  quite 
rustic." 

My  friend  the  teacher  speaks  for  the  West.  In 
the  secluded  plantation  life  of  the  Southern  States 
it  is  not  at  all  uncommon  to  meet  young  people — 
young  girls  especially — who  have  never  been  twenty 
miles  from  home,  and  yet  have  sweet  and  gracious 
manners,  manners  that  are  as  essentially  rustic  as  an 


102  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

anemone  or  a  cluster  of  trailing  arbutus.  In  the 
Eastern  and  Middle  States,  where  town  is  more  ac- 
cessible, one  nevertheless  finds  not  infrequently  the 
same  quality,  either  in  cultivated  families  living-  by 
preference  in  the  country,  or  in  what  is  distinctly 
and  unquestionably  the  local  population.  It  is  rare 
to  go  into  any  school-house  of  a  country  town  in 
New  England,  and  not  see  some  one  child  who  has 
a  genuine  and  winning  gracefulness  of  manner.  She 
may  be  of  foreign  parentage  or  she  in  ay  be  descend- 
ed from  those  who  came  in  the  Mayflower;  she  may 
have  inaccuracies  of  speech,  and  these  may  or  may 
not  add  to  her  naive  attractions ;  but  the  type  is 
there,  and  it  will  be  recognized  by  every  observant 
person  in  connection  with  our  Eastern  and  Middle 
States.  Ilowells  rarely  deals  with  it — his  Lydia 
Blood  comes  the  nearest  to  it ;  but  it  is  unquestion- 
ably there,  and  the  effect  of  its  presence,  even  as 
exhibited  among  children,  is  to  make  the  rural  life 
of  New  England  far  more  attractive  than  our  novel- 
ists usually  paint  it. 

Rusticity,  on  the  whole,  fares  well  in  English 
literature.  When  we  think  of  it  as  depicted  by 
Shakespeare,  we  think  less  of  his  dull  or  vulgar 
Audreys  and  Mopsas  than  of  Miranda  and  Perdita. 
Both  these  last  heroines  represent  a  life  absolutely 
removed  from  all  that  cities  can  offer;  both  arc  in 
part  idealized,  but  Miranda  the  more  so  ;  we  think  of 


"QUITE  RUSTIC.''  103 

Pcrdita  as  a  woman,  but  can  hardly  classify  Miranda 
except  in  the  realm  where  Ariel  dwells.  Yet  both 
are  painted  with  strong  qualities — Perdita  with  deep 
conscientiousness,  as  Mrs.  Jameson  has  pointed  out, 
and  Miranda  with  absolute  self-devotion.  In  that 
reversion  to  country  life  which  is  going  on  side  by 
side  with  the  increased  tendency  to  cities — a  com- 
bination which  is  making  us  all  into  a  nation  that 
dwells  half  the  year  on  the  pavements  and  the  other 
half  in  the  wilderness — we  may  go  back  to  that  po- 
etic side  of  existence  which  suggested  his  Perditas 
and  Mirandas  to  Shakespeare.  We  shall  never  get 
back  to  the  fantastic  shepherdesses  of  French  and 
Italian  song,  for  these  never  were  on  sea  or  land; 
but  we  may  at  least  hope  to  find,  in  the  rural  types 
of  character,  a  corrective  to  the  dangers  of  a  purely 
metropolitan  society. 

Perhaps  I  shall  do  well  to  draw  again  upon  the 
wide  observation  of  my  Western  teacher  to  paint 
the  class  of  young  girls  in  America  most  remote 
from  true  rusticity — a  class  whom  all  may  recognize 
in  her  description.  "  The  type  which  troubles  me 
most,"  she  says,  "  is  the  smart,  quick-witted  girl, 
who  takes  the  tone  of  any  company  she  is  with; 
who  sees  the  fine  points  of  literature  or  history 
without  feeling  any  of  them,  who  has  girlishness 
without  maidcnliness,  and  who  has  absolutely  no 
reverence — in  short,  the  type  of  Maud  Matchin  in 


104  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

'The  Bread -Winners.'  Of  course  Maud  Matchin 
was  a  type,  and  as  such  more  odious  than  any  single 
approach  to  it;  but  I  know  plenty  of  girls  who 
contain  the  Maud  Matchin  ingredients.  I  have  seen 
but  one  really  developed  good  specimen."  Of  this 
unpleasing  class  also  we  have  all  seen  suggestions; 
and  we  sometimes  observe  its  traits  in  those  who 
have  risen  to  conspicuous  social  position.  By  way 
of  correction  of  its  perilous  tendencies,  nothing  is 
better  than  a  pure  and  wholesome  admixture  of  rus- 
ticity. 


XXI. 
THE  TOY  OF  ROYALTY. 

HAWTHORNE  frankly  acknowledged  that  he  was 
glad  to  have  been  in  England  before  people  had 
done  playing  with  the  toy  of  monarchy.  There  is 
something  doubly  amusing  in  seeing  the  efforts  of 
American  official  personages  to  give  proper  recep- 
tion to  the  type  of  royalty  lately  arrived  from  the 
Sandwich  Islands — something  which  may  almost  be 
called  the  toy  of  a  toy,  bearing  the  same  relation  to 
the  European  plaything  that  is  borne  by  the  strange 
dolls  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  to  the  elaborate  French 
or  German  article.  The  dusky  queen  of  a  few 
Pacific  islands,  whose  husband  is  the  elected  king 
of  a  decaying  handful  of  converted  savages — the 
whole  population  under  their  sway,  native  and  for- 
eign, being  little  more  than  fifty  thousand  —  has 
been  received  as  if  she  were  the  Queen  of  England 
and  Empress  of  India.  And  why  not?  A  toy  is  a 
toy,  and  to  a  child  the  mere  size  or  costliness  is  of 
little  importance.  In  monarchies  the  royal  station 
tells,  and  whether  it  be  an  exiled  Bourbon  or  a  de- 
throned Bonaparte,  it  is  much  the  same  thing. 


106  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

General  Badcau,  in  his  curious  and  valuable  book 
on  "  Aristocracy  in  England,"  describes  an  occasion 
where  Prince  Leopold  and  the  Prime -minister  of 
England  brought  with  them  in  the  carriage  an  Af- 
rican prince.  "  lie  looked  to  me,"  says  Badeau, 
"  like  any  little  negro  boy  of  nine  or  ten  ;  but  he 
had  his  gentlemen-in-waiting,  he  took  precedence  of 
the  Prince-minister,  and  he  stood  on  the  red  carpet 
reserved  for  royalty  alone."  The  difference  is  that 
all  this  in  England  is  in  a  manner  serious;  even 
persons  of  liberal  opinions  half  believe  in  it,  as  a 
little  girl  half  believes  that,  her  doll  is  hungry  unless 
allowed  a  bit  of  her  luncheon.  In  America  it  has 
been  a  curious  combination  of  genuine  international 
hospitality  with  a  sort  of  pleasurable  playing  at 
something  hitherto  only  known  through  the  medium 
of  books. 

My  own  acquaintance  with  the  toy  of  royalty  is 
very  limited,  having  been  confined,  so  far  as  per- 
sonal conversation  goes,  to  one  emperor  and  his 
empress.  It  was  enough  at  least  to  furnish  a  stand- 
ard, and  to  diminish  the  importance  of  minor  inter- 
views. One  must  draw  the  line  somewhere,  and  I 
might  perhaps  draw  it  at  emperors.  His  Imperial 
Majesty  of  Brazil  was  certainly  a  well-informed  man, 
with  a  creditable  appreciation  of  Whittier's  poetry. 
There  was  a  curious  little  lady-in-waiting,  I  remem- 
ber, who  went  round  reminding  people  that  her 


THE    TOY    OP    ROYALTY.  107 

Imperial  Majesty  was  a  Bourbon.  Bat  I  must  ad- 
mit, for  one,  that  I  had  been  sitting  beside  the  em- 
press on  a  sofa  for  some  time,  chatting  as  composed- 
ly as  I  should  have  done  with  any  other  middle-aged 
lady,  before  it  occurred  to  me  how  incongruous  was 
iny  attitude  with  the  dignity  that  once  hedged  her 
great  name.  Think  of  it — a  race  that  had  furnished 
Europe  with  dukes  for  five  hundred  years  and  with 
kings  for  three  hundred,  that  had  convulsed  nations 
with  wars  on  questions  of  dynasty,  and  had  rent 
courts  with  strife  as  to  the  problem  who  should  use 
so  much  as  a  footstool  in  the  queen's  presence — and 
here  was  I  sitting  on  a  hair- cloth  sofa  beside  a 
Bourbon !  If  this  was  all  the  reverence  still  due  to 
a  wearer  of  even  that  august  name,  what  earthly 
glory  was  left  for  a  Guelph  ?  how  much  less  for  a 
Bonaparte!  how  inconceivably  little  for  poor  Queen 
Kapiolani !  I  remember,  indeed,  that  one  stately 
American  lady,  unable  quite  to  forget  the  traditions 
of  her  youth,  did  actually  bend  one  knee  a  little 
before  the  Bourbon  empress ;  and  I  wonder  wheth- 
er any  one  remembered  even  thus  much  of  homage 
for  her  Imperial  Majesty  from  the  Hawaiian  Isl- 
ands-. Probably  not. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  all  a  play  suited  for 
children.  The  very  name  and  associations  of  roy- 
alty are  coming  to  belong  to  the  childish  domain 
just  as  distinctly  as  Puss  in  Boots  or  Jack  and  the 


108  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

Bean  -  stalk.  For  a  few  years  longer  some  prince 
will  survive  in  London  to  select  the  popular  actress 
of  the  day  and  to  decide  what  shade  of  gloves  gen- 
tlemen shall  wear;  but  soon  even  these  important 
functions  will  be  discharged  less  expensively,  and 
the  common-sense  of  even  the  elder  branch  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  will  assert  itself.  This  all  are 
coming  to  see ;  but  what  men  do  not  see  so  clearly 
is  that  not  only  much  of  the  melodrama  of  the 
present,  but  much  written  history  of  the  past,  will 
shrink  in  value  with  the  disappearance  of  monarchy, 
and  will  be  no  more  held  in  men's  minds.  When 
the  Western  continent  is  held  by  a  hundred  millions 
of  people  who  care  no  more  for  the  name  of  king 
than  did  the  roaring  waves  in  Shakespeare's  "  Tem- 
pest," those  thronging  myriads  can  afford  to  dismiss 
from  their  memories  three-quarters  of  the  European 
wars,  turning  upon  dynastic  quarrels  as  valueless  for 
profit  as  the  forgotten  strifes  among  the  Saxon 
heptarchy.  Every  step  that  in  any  way  illustrates 
the  slow  passage  of  man  to  political  self-government 
will  have  a  continued  and  even  a  redoubled  interest; 
but  every  strife  to  decide  whether  somebody's  third 
cousin  or  fourth  cousin  should  get  the  throne  will 
have  no  further  value  but  to  point  the  moral — which 
will  then  have  been  abundantly  established — as  to 
the  folly  of  trusting  anybody  with  a  throne  at  all. 
Mr.  Barnum,  it  is  said,  is  about  to  buy  the  crown 


THE    TOY    OF    KOYALTY.  109 

jewels  of  France  for  his  museum,  which  is  undoubt- 
edly the  best  use  to  make  of  them.  A  time  will 
come,  probably,  when  his  successor  will  also  engage 
the  last  survivors  of  royal  families  to  travel  with 
the  Greatest  Show  on  Earth,  or  will  put  them  on 
little  reservations  like  American  Indians,  or  let  them 
spend  an  innocent  old  age  on  quiet  country  farms, 
such  as  Dickens's  showman  planned  for  his  giants 
after  they  had  grown  shaky  in  the  knees.  Recent 
discoveries  in  Egypt  have  shown  that  the  person  of 
a  king  may  be  kept  in  tolerably  good  preservation 
for  several  thousand  years.  But  the  pictured  re- 
sult seems  to  indicate  that  for  royal  mummies,  as 
for  the  institution  they  commemorate,  it  is  easy  to 
survive  not  only  usefulness,  but  even  good  looks. 


XXII. 
WOMEN'S  LETTERS. 

"  WOULD  you  desire,"  says  De  Quince}7  in  his  "  E*- 
say  on  St.yle,"  "  at  this  day  to  read  our  noble  lan- 
guage in  its  native  beauty,  picturesque  from  idio- 
matic propriety,  racy  in  its  phraseology,  delicate  yet 
sinewy  in  its  composition,  steal  the  mail-bags  and 
break  open  all  the  letters  in  female  handwriting." 
This  he  goes  on  to  demonstrate,  he  himself  writing 
in  that  involved  and  elaborate  style  of  which  he  was 
so  fond — a  sort  of  Coleridge-and-water,  or  perhaps 
one  might  say,  Coleridge-and-air  —  full  of  cloudy 
glimpses  and  rich  treasures  half  displayed.  Had 
De  Quincey  imitated  the  women's  letters  he  de- 
scribed, his  writings  would  have  a  longer  lease  of 
life.  And  in  the  same  spirit  with  him,  but  in  a 
better  style,  speaks  one  of  the  most  cultivated  of 
American  scholars,  himself  a  delightful  letter-writer, 
Joseph  G.  Cogswell,  first  librarian  and  organizer  of 
the  Astor  Library.  This  is  his  statement  of  the 
matter: 

"  To  preserve  the  true  spirit  of  friendly  corre- 
spondence, I  conceive,  requires  more  exercise  of  the 


WOMEN'S  LETTERS.  Ill 

affections  of  the  heart  than  of  the  powers  of  the 
mind,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  ladies  commonly 
excel  us  in  epistolary  writing.  I  know  of  no  read- 
ing more  dry  and  uninteresting  than  the  letters  of 
great  men  ;  I  mean  particularly  among  the  moderns, 
for  those  of  Cicero  and  Pliny  I  never  read,  and  of 
course  pretend  not  to  judge  of  their  merit.  I  am 
not  so  gallant  as  to  acknowledge  that  females  pos- 
sess a  superiority  of  intellect,  nor  so  illiberal  as  to 
deny  them  an  equality ;  but  in  all  the  requisites 
necessary  to  the  attainment  of  a  pleasing  and  inter- 
esting style  of  letter-writing  they  are  far  above  us."5* 
This  was  not  a  bit  of  dulcet  flattery,  for  it  was 
addressed  to  a  man.  It  was  founded  on  an  observa- 
tion that  we  all  may  make.  We  listen  to  the  reading 
of  letters  from  some  foreign  country,  perhaps.  If 
they  are  written  by  a  man,  they  may  be  very  good, 
perhaps  brilliant ;  but  if  so,  it  is  probably  because 
the  man  himself  is  known  as  brilliant;  we  are 
rarely  surprised  by  finding  a  man's  letters  much 
better  than  we  should  have  expected  of  him.  With 
women,  on  the  other  hand,  the  surprise  is  constant ; 
we  may  almost  say  that  every  woman  writes  better 
letters  than  we  should  expect  of  her;  that  a  third- 
rate  woman  writes  better  than  any  but  a  first-rate 
man.  Whence  is  this  difference? 

*  "  Life  and  Letters,"  p.  14. 


112  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

It  may  come,  first,  from  the  closer  observation  of 
details  by  women,  the  result  of  the  early  training  of 
their  lives,  this  being  also  based  on  a  quality  of  orig- 
inal temperament.  Now  details  are  what  we  need 
in  a  letter;  for  philosophy  and  general  grasp  we  go 
to  a  book.  Method,  order,  combination,  arc  quite 
unimportant  in  a  letter;  we  need  to  know  what 
each  man  or  woman  described  was  doing  at  a  cer- 
tain time — where  they  stood,  what  they  wore,  what 
they  appeared  to  have  had  for  breakfast  or  to  ex- 
pect for  dinner.  This  is  what  a  letter  should  bring 
us ;  the  logic  and  the  deductions  may  come  in  sep- 
arate packages.  Now  the  letters  of  women  will 
vary  with  the  period ;  they  may  be  stiff  or  they 
may  be  gushing,  but  they  will  give  details.  I  re- 
member an  educated  American  who,  on  returning 
from  Egypt,  could  only  say,  when  asked  to  describe 
the  Pyramids,  "  Oh  yes,  enormous  things  —  enor- 
mous things  !"  But  the  stupidest  woman  that  ever 
climbed  a  Pyramid  could  at  least  tell  you  after- 
wards, when  she  had  recovered  her  breath,  some- 
thing about  the  Arab  who  dragged  her  up  and  the 
terror  that  took  her  down ;  and  it  is  by  comparison 
with  these  that  we  find  the  Pyramid  truly  enor- 
mous. 

De  Quincey's  own  theory  of  the  advantage  en- 
joyed by  women  as  letter-writers  is  somewhat  differ- 
ent from  this ;  he  attributes  their  superiority  to 


WOMEN'S  LETTERS.  113 

their  being  more  frankly  emotional,  and  even  excit- 
able. "  Now  there  is  not  in  the  world,"  he  says, 
"  so  certain  a  guarantee  for  pure  idiomatic  diction, 
without  trick  or  affectation,  as  a  case  of  genuine  ex- 
citement. Real  situations  are  always  pledges  of  a 
real  natural  language.  It  is  in  counterfeit  passion, 
in  the  mimical  situations  of  novels,  or  in  poems  that 
are  efforts  of  ingenuity,"  that  women  write  badly. 
These  same  women,  if  they  labored  under  a  formal 
responsibility  "might  write  ill  and  affectedly,"  he 
thinks ;  but  their  letters  are  composed  "  under  the 
benefit  of  their  natural  advantages,"  Do  Quinccy 
holds.  Yet  he  must  remember  that  women,  like 
men,  or  more  than  men,  are  influenced  by  current 
fashion ;  and  letters,  as  well  as  anything  else,  may 
be  conventional  and  over-elaborate.  Miss  Austen 
and  Miss  Anna  Seward  died  within  a  few  years  of 
each  other;  but  Miss  Austen's  novels  are  simple, 
direct,  and  graphic,  while  Miss  Seward's  letters,  so 
filled  with  wit  and  anecdote  that  they  are  good 
reading  to  this  day,  almost  always  rise  into  some- 
thing inflated  ere  they  close.  Thus,  after  a  delight- 
ful epistle  to  the  then  famous  poet  Hayley,  she 
must  needs  close  with  this  apology  for  too  long  a 
letter:  "But  be  still,  thou  repining  heart  of  mine; 
stifle  thy  selfish  regrets,  and  with  a  sincere  bene- 
diction on  thy  favorite  bard,  that  health,  peace,  and 
fame  may  long  be  his,  arrest  the  pen  thou  art  so 


114  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

prone  to  lead  through  thy  mazes,  governing  it,  as 
thou  dost,  with  resistless  despotism."  Yet  all  this 
is  simplicity  itself  compared  to  the  habitual  inflation 
of  Miss  Seward's  style  when  writing  anything  that 
is  not  a  letter — as,  for  instance,  her  life  of  Dr.  Eras- 
mus Darwin.  And  I  perfectly  remember  certain 
maiden  ladies  of  Boston,  who  were  justly  renowned 
in  my  youth  for  what  they  would  have  called  by  no 
briefer  name  than  "  epistolary  correspondence,"  who 
modelled  their  style  upon  Miss  Seward's,  and  would 
have  disdained  to  close  a  letter  with  a  sentence  of 
one  clause  or  a  word  of  one  syllable.  They  wrote 
charming  descriptions,  yet  were  never  satisfied  with- 
out getting  on  their  stilts  at  the  end,  or  at  least 
dropping  a  stately  old-fashioned  courtesy  to  their 
audience.  Probably  they  would  have  written  even 
their  " epistles"  of  love  in  this  formal  style;  we 
know  that  Abigail  Adams  did,  for  one ;  and  that 
she  wrote  a  letter  asking  John  Adams  to  buy  her 
a  supply  of  cheap  pins,  and  signed  it  "  Portia." 


XXIII. 
THE  INDEPENDENT  PURSE. 

WERE  I  asked  what  change  would  make  most 
difference  in  the  happiness  of  married  pairs,  it  would 
not  be  hard  to  answer.  The  change  would  not 
relate  to  the  laws  of  divorce,  whether  loosened  or 
tightened ;  it  would  not  even  lie  in  conceding  to 
women  the  right  of  the  separate  boudoir,  though  it 
has  always  seemed  to  me  that  it  would  enhance  the 
dignity  and  delicacy,  and  therefore  the  happiness, 
of  wedded  life,  if  every  woman  had  an  apartment  of 
which  she  might  turn  the  key,  even  against  her  hus- 
band, as  freely  as  he  may  turn  the  key  of  his  study 
or  his  office.  But  the  change  now  meant  is  one  al- 
ready effected  in  many  families,  and  always,  I  sus- 
pect, with  happy  results  —  the  introduction,  under 
some  form,  of  the  Independent  Purse. 

By  this  institution  is  meant  something  quite  be- 
yond that  mere  allowance  for  dress,  or  for  house- 
hold expenses,  which  is  so  often  made  in  families. 
That  is  usually  based  on  sheer  convenience.  There 
is  no  more  thought  of  justice  in  it  than  in  the  sum 
allowed  to  Bridget  to  buy  yeast,  or  to  Michael  for 


116  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

horse-feed.  The  true  division  is  not  based  on  con- 
venience, but  on  right — on  the  knowledge,  namely, 
that  the  wife's  share  of  the  day's  work  is  as  essen- 
tial as  the  husband's,  and  that  there  should  be  some 
equality  in  the  distribution  of  proceeds.  The  fami- 
ly relation  is,  in  its  merely  business  aspects,  a  kind 
of  copartnership.  Now  it  is  very  common  in  such 
partnerships  for  one  partner  to  see  to  the  manufact- 
uring or  to  the  care  of  the  property,  while  all  the 
money  passes  through  another  partner's  hands.  But 
he  who  handles  the  money  does  not  therefore  re- 
gard it  all  as  primarily  his  own,  nor  does  he  talk  of 
"  giving  "  it  to  the  other  partners ;  they  simply  draw 
their  share  of  the  profits  from  time  to  time,  under 
conditions  agreed  upon.  They  draw  it  as  of  right, 
not  through  his  kindness.  Why  is  it  not  so  with  a 
wife  ? 

In  a  few  cases,  no  doubt,  such  a  proposition  would 
be  unreasonable.  There  are  cases  where  the  wife  is 
a  toy,  and  does  nothing  to  help  her  husband,  so  that 
he  could  both  make  and  spend  his  income  more 
judiciously  without  her.  So  there  are  cases,  on  the 
other  side,  where  the  wife  supports  the  husband  out- 
right, whether  this  be  done  by  ballet-dancing  or  at 
the  wash-tub.  These  are  extreme  cases,  and  may  be 
set  aside  together.  In  the  great  mass  of  instances 
the  wife  helps  the  husband  in  establishing  the  fort- 
unes of  the  family,  or — in  modestcr  phrase — earn- 


THE    INDEPENDENT   PURSE.  117 

ing  its  daily  bread.  Often  she  does  this  directly, 
as  in  case  of  the  farmer's  wife,  who  usually  works 
as  hard  as  her  husband,  and,  indeed,  in  new  com- 
muniUes,  where  domestics  arc  hard  to  get,  much 
harder.  Even  in  this  case  it  is  almost  always  the 
husband  who  is  the  treasurer,  who  collects  the  mon- 
ey earned,  and  "  gives  " — or  perhaps  does  not  give — 
it  to  his  wife.  But  where  her  share  is  not  so  obvi- 
ous, it  is  just  as  essential.  Every  woman  who  takes 
care  of  her  own  household  lifts  exactly  that  much 
off  her  husband's  shoulders,  and  leaves  him  free  to 
attend  to  the  outside  business  of  the  firm,  for  which 
the  money  comes  in.  Alas !  many  a  woman  works 
herself  to  death  before  her  husband  discovers,  by 
what  it  costs  him  to  buy  the  services  of  housekeep- 
ers and  nurses,  that  the  mere  material  labor  of  his 
wife  was  worth  a  salary.  lie  is  happy  if  he  docs 
not  see  reason  to  think  that  if  he  had  only  "given" 
her  the  amount  of  that  salary  he  might  have  saved 
her.  After  all,  Whittier  is  mistaken  ;  it  is  not  "  It 
might  have  been !"  that  are  the  saddest  words. 
"  II ad  I  only  known  !"  are  a  great  deal  sadder. 

Some  time  or  other,  it  may  be,  we  shall  discover 
the  simple  mathematical  formula  by  which  to  adjust 
this  matter  of  income.  Meanwhile  we  must  guess 
at  it.  It  will  be  evident,  on  a  little  thought,  that  a 
married  woman  needs  much  more  than  an  allowance 
for  food  and  clothing — the  food  to  be  shared  by 


118  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

her  household,  the  clothing  to  include  probably  that 
of  her  younger  children.  She  needs  such  an  income 
as  will  make  her  in  some  sort  the  equal  of  her  hus- 
band as  to  her  general  expenditures,  dress  included. 
Probably  the  item  of  dress  is  the  one  department 
in  •which  women  are  habitually  more  liberal  in  ex- 
penditure than  their  husbands;  and  this  results  in 
part  from  the  customs  of  society — customs  from 
which  the  husbands  would  by  no  means  wish  their 
wives  to  depart.  But,  apart  from  dress,  there  cer- 
tainly prevails  among  men  a  much  freer  standard 
of  small  expenditures  than  among  women,  and  this 
where  there  arc  no  habits  properly  to  be  called 
profligate.  "  A.  cheap  lunch  for  a  man,"  said  a  ho- 
tel-keeper once  to  me,  "seems  a  dear  lunch  to  a 
woman."  I  never  visited  a  woman's  club -room 
that  did  not  look  impoverished  beside  the  furnish- 
ings of  the  plainest  club-room  for  men  that  I  ever 
entered.  Who  that  has  collected  money  for  benevo- 
lent purposes  has  not  noticed  the  difference  between 
the  sexes  as  to  the  standard  of  giving  ?  Half  the 
time  the  wife  does  not  venture  to  give  at  all  until 
her  husband  comes  home.  If,  however,  she  is  ac- 
customed to  acting  independently,  she  draws  from 
her  purse  a  dollar  with  some  hesitation,  whereas,  he 
would  perhaps  give  five  with  none  at  all ;  or  she 
takes  out  five  dollars  where  lie  would  write  a  check 
for  twenty.  Women  are  certainly  as  much  inter- 


THE    INDEPENDENT   PURSE.  119 

cstcd  in  benevolent  enterprises  as  men,  and  as  will- 
ing- to  give  what  they  have,  but  they  have  not  the 
money.  Even  if  they  have  it  by  them,  they  fear  to 
use  it,  for  they  have  not  the  habit  of  the  separate 
purse. 

It  may  be  said  that  it  is  base  and  unworthy  to 
treat  married  life  as  a  copartnership  only.  I  do  not 
so  treat  it,  for  it  is  much  more  than  that.  The 
trouble  is  that  the  system  prevalent  in  many  fami- 
lies makes  it  much  less  than  that.  A  wrong  system 
makes  it  a  business  affair,  as  far  as  the  labor  goes, 
but  the  alliance  ceases  when  the  distribution  of 
profits  is  concerned — as  if  in  a  large  firm  the  part- 
ner having  charge  of  the  books  should  balance 
them  for  his  own  convenience  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  and  deposit  the  undivided  profits  to  his  own 
private  credit  in  the  bank.  Marriage  is  something 
more  than  a  copartnership,  but  it  is  nothing  less ;  it 
is  governed  by  higher  laws,  but  by  no  lower.  Fort- 
unately the  business  knowledge  of  women  is  steadi- 
ly increasing,  and  with  it  their  capacity  to  deal  with 
money.  If  a  woman,  by  art  or  authorship  or  book- 
keeping, has  earned  a  thousand  dollars  a  year  before 
marriage — and  such  instances  are  now  common — 
it  is  absurd  to  ask  her,  after  marriage,  to  work  harder 
in  her  household  than  before,  and  yet  handle  less 
money,  while  her  husband  handles  plenty.  It  is  not 
a  question  of  economy  where  economy  is  needed; 


120  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

women  arc  quite  as  ready  as  men  to  accept  the 
necessity  of  that.  It  is  a  question  between  sharing 
and  what  is  called  "giving;"  a  question  between 
justice  and  the  traditional  inquiry  addressed  by  a 
certain  Quaker  to  his  wife,  in  a  certain  city,  "  Ra- 
chel, where  is  that  ninepence  I  gave  thee  day  be- 
fore yesterday  ?" 


XXIV. 
BREAKING  AND  BENDING. 

IT  is  not  many  years  since  there  prevailed  in 
some  parts  of  this  country  a  method  of  discipline 
which  would  now  be  generally  held  barbarous  even 
among  the  most  conscientious  parents.  It  was  held 
to  be  an  essential  part  of  a  child's  training  that  as 
soon  as  its  will  was  developed  up  to  a  certain  point, 
it  should  be  as  definitely  and  distinctly  broken  as 
you  break  a  plant  upon  its  stalk.  Instead  of  avoid- 
ing or  postponing  such  a  necessity,  the  parent 
fearlessly  met  the  occasion,  and  was — for  even  the 
most  rigorous  parents  were  human — glad  when  it 
was  over.  The  child  must  definitely  be  taught  sub- 
mission on  some  specific  occasion,  for  submission's 
sake ;  and  this  without  reference  to  its  state  of 
health,  to  its  nervous  condition,  or  to  the  possibility 
of  obtaining  the  same  result  without  such  a  direct 
contest.  In  fact,  the  direct  contest  was  considered 
an  advantage  in  itself;  even  if  the  way  was  clear 
to  bending  the  will,  that  was  not  desirable — it  must 
be  broken. 

Many  persons  now   past  middle  age  will  recall 


122  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

such  contests  as  this.  Generally  the  ordeal  came 
from  the  father;  often  the  mother  would  have  cho- 
sen milder  ways.  Sometimes  it  came,  however, 
from  the  mother,  in  which  case  the  process  was  more 
formidable  still,  a  stern  woman  being  generally  a 
sterner  being  than  a  man  who  shares  that  same  at- 
tribute. What  was  the  result?  Often,  no  doubt, 
to  create  a  strong  and  conscientious  character,  the 
will  not  being  really  broken,  but  only  subordinated. 
Often  it  tended  only  to  create  the  faults  of  a  slave 
— evasion,  insincerity,  cowardice — in  place  of  manly 
self-assertion.  Very  often  it  left  a  barrier  of  ice 
between  parent  and  child.  A  woman  of  forty,  the 
daughter  of  an  educated  lawyer  in  a  country  town, 
once  told  me  that  she  never  knew,  until  she  was 
nearly  twenty  years  old,  how  to  tell  time  by  the 
clock ;  the  reason  being  that  her  father  had  under- 
taken to  explain  to  her  the  method  when  she  was 
but  a  child,  and  she  had  failed  to  comprehend  it. 
She  had  been  afraid  to  tell  him  that  she  did  not 
understand,  and  equally  afraid  to  ask  light  from  any 
one  else,  lest  he  should  hear  of  it,  and  blame  her; 
so  she  said  nothing  about  it  for  years.  Yet  that 
man,  so  crushing  in  his  domestic  authority,  had 
never  laid  his  hand  on  one  of  his  children  in  pun- 
ishment; his  word  and  look  were  a  sufficient  rod. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  when  he  died — respected  and 
trusted  by  the  whole  community  —  his  daughter 


BREAKING   AND   BENDING.  123 

wrote  to  me,  "His  heart  was  pure — and  terrible;  I 
think  there  was  not  another  like  it  on  earth."  She 
was  wrong ;  for  there  were,  in  the  older  and  sterner 
times,  a  good  many  like  it,  though  none  more  he- 
roic, more  single-minded,  or  more  tenacious. 

The  modern  theory  is — and  I  confess  it  seems  to 
me  the  wiser  one — that  the  will  itself  is  a  part  of 
the  sacrcdncss  of  our  nature,  and  should  no  more 
be  broken  than  the  main  shaft  of  a  steam  -  engine. 
You  shudder  when  your  boy  cries,  "  I  will !"  in  the 
adjoining  room,  in  that  defiant  tone  which  is  a  storm- 
signal  to  the  parents'  car.  The  fault  is  not,  how- 
ever, in  the  words ;  spoken  in  the  right  place  and 
right  tone,  they  represent  the  highest  moral  condi- 
tion of  which  man  is  capable,  since  resignation  itself 
is  not  a  virtue  so  noble  as  is  a  concentrated  and 
heroic  purpose.  How  superbly  docs  Tennyson  state 
the  dignity  of  those  words  when  he  paints  the  mar- 
riage in  "The  Gardener's  Daughter!" 

"Autumn  brought  an  hour 
For  Eustace,  when  I  heard  his  deep  I  will 
Breathed,  like  the  covenant  of  a  God,  to  hold 
From  thence  through  all  the  worlds." 

There  is  one  thing  that  I  dread  more  for  my  little 
maiden  than  to  hear  her  say  "  I  will,"  namely,  that 
she  should  lose  the  power  of  saying  it.  A  broken, 
impaired,  will-less  nature — a  life  filled  with  memo- 


124  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

ry's  gravestones,  where  noble  aspirations  Lave  per- 
ished unfulfilled  for  want  of  vigor  of  will  to  embody 
them  in  action — this  seems  to  me  more  disastrous 
than  even  an  overweening  self-assertion. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  say,  on  the  other  hand,  as 
some  persons  hold,  that  all  moral  error  is  but  dis- 
ease, and  never  needs  direct  contest,  but  only  sooth- 
ing medicines.  Yet  I  believe  more  and  more,  as  I 
grow  older,  that  a  large  part  of  our  contests  with 
children  are  wasted,  and  that  patience  and  tact 
would  commonly  accomplish  the  same  end,  without 
the  crossing  of  bayonets.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
much  of  what  seems  violence  or  stubbornness  in 
children  is  merely  a  phase  of  physical  development, 
and  will  be  outgrown  as  unconsciously  as  a  boy 
outgrows  the  habit  of  treading  his  boot-heels  side- 
ways. I  know  several  grown  persons  whose  temper 
was  a  terror  in  childhood,  and  who  have  long  since 
passed,  by  mere  natural  development,  and  without 
especial  struggle,  into  a  self-controlled  and  perhaps 
commonplace  maturity.  The  wisest  and  most  suc- 
cessful parents  seem  to  me  those  who  take  this  into 
account;  who  reduce  direct  contests  to  a  minimum, 
bend  the  twig  instead  of  breaking  it,  divert  the 
course  of  the  torrent  instead  of  trying  to  dam  it 
up.  We  recognize  this  with  all  domestic  animals. 
While  half  a  dozen  men  are  collected  around  a  balky 
horse  in  the  street,  beating,  hauling,  swearing,  and 


BREAKING   AND   BENDING.  125 

all  in  vain,  a  single  expert  will  sometimes  come 
along  and  by  some  very  simple  device — perhaps  a 
change  in  the  harness,  or  a  chestnut  bur  inserted 
under  the  headstall — will  so  alter  the  current  of  the 
creature's  dim  thoughts  that  he  will  trot  away  be- 
wildered, trying  to  conjecture  what  has  happened. 
Thus  it  is  that  wise  mothers  do;  a  little  bit  of  in- 
genuity, a  sudden  change  of  therne,  will  often  clear 
away  all  clouds  in  a  minute.  This  is  not  indul- 
gence ;  it  is  common-sense  and  tact.  It  may  not 
always  answer,  but  for  that  very  reason  let  us  use 
it  when  we  can  ;  avert  the  direct  collisions  when 
possible,  instead  of  welcoming  them  all  the  time. 
Even  the  most  Spartan  or  Puritanic  mother — like 
one  I  know,  who  herself  put  her  little  girl's  finger 
to  the  red-hot  stove,  that  she  might  learn  thence- 
forth to  avoid  it — will  admit  that  a  sick  child  must 
be  managed  through  tact  and  skill  as  well  as  through 
authority ;  and  it  is  my  experience  that  much  the 
same  is  true  of  the  healthiest  and  the  strongest. 


XXV. 
EXALTED  STATIONS. 

AN  accomplished  English  writer,  endeavoring  to 
explain  to  Americans,  as  many  have  done  before 
him,  how  it  is  that  educated  men  in  England  do 
not  feel  aggrieved  at  giving  precedence  to  persons 
of  mere  hereditary  rank,  gives  a  curious  illustration 
of  the  very  habit  criticised.  He  says  that  "  no  sensi- 
ble Englishman  ever  sees  in  it  a  want  of  real  con- 
sideration for  himself."  The  hosts  simply  employ  a 
convenient  rule,  lie  says:  the  titled  guests  follow 
the  order  of  their  rank ;  but  the  person  held  in  the 
greatest  esteem  may  be  some  one  who  comes  in  last 
of  all.  "  How  frequently  do  we  discern,  from  biog- 
raphies and  memoirs,  that  some  untitled  man,  living 
in  perfect  obscurity  so  far  as  the  world  is  concerned, 
has  been  looked  up  to  with  unaffected  deference  by 
people  of  exalted  station  !"  In  saying  this  he  seems 
to  feel  that  he  has  said  all  that  was  needed  ;  and 
that  he  fully  justifies  this  curious  practice,  by  which 
the  very  guest  for  whom  the  entertainment  is  made, 
instead  of  being  placed  at  his  hostess's  side  and 
treated  with  honor,  may  find  himself  utterly  subor- 


EXALTED   STATIONS.  127 

diiiatcd  to  every  person  in  the  room  who  happens 
to  count  among  his  ancestors  a  royal  mistress  or  a 
brewer  sufficiently  wealthy  to  have  been  rewarded 
with  a  peerage. 

To  the  average  republican  mind  he  simply  justi- 
fies the  criticism,  and  prolongs  that  attitude  which 
seems  to  most  Americans  so  cringing;  and  which 
does  more  than  any  one  difference,  perhaps,  to  trans- 
mit from  one  generation  to  another  the  alienation 
between  the  two  races.  When  some  defender  of 
slavery  once  claimed,  in  Dr.  W.  E.  Channing's  pres- 
ence, that  the  slaves  of  our  Southern  States  were 
contented,  that  great  moralist  answered,  "  You  have 
stated  the  crowning  argument  against  the  system." 
It  is  the  worst  part  of  any  degrading  practice  that 
it  makes  men  accustomed  to  its  working.  It  may 
be  that  no  sensible  Englishman  ever  sees  in  this  a 
want  of  consideration  for  himself  personally — that 
is  a  small  matter ;  but  if  he  does  not  see  in  it  some- 
thing which  is  insulting  to  the  dignity  of  human 
nature  itself,  he  differs  inconceivably  from  a  sensible 
American.  A  cast-iron  etiquette  like  this  puts  a 
ceremony  above  a  man  ;  a  descent  above  a  char- 
acter; and  above  all,  a  social  rule  above  that  in- 
stinct of  hospitality  which  bids  even  the  Bedouin 
Arab  and  the  American  Indian  give  the  guest  the 
place  of  honor  at  his  board.  In  the  long  series  of 
social  insults  which  General  Grant,  according  to  his 


128  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

chronicler,  General  Badeau,  received  in  England,  the 
point  of  disrespect  lay  not  in  the  fact  that  he  was 
the  greatest  general  of  the  age  or  an  ex-President  of 
the  United  States,  but  in  the  circumstance  that  he 
was  the  guest  for  whom  the  entertainment  was  in 
most  cases  made.  He  being  the  guest,  all  this  sub- 
ordination was  as  essentially  degrading  as  when  the 
guests  of  some  Oriental  potentate  are  expected  to 
enter  his  presence  on  all  fours.  That,  no  doubt,  is 
esteemed  by  his  loyal  subjects  a  most  "convenient" 
arrangement,  for  which  the  king  himself  is  "  in  no- 
wise personally  responsible."  Probably  no  sensible 
inhabitant  of  Madagascar  or  Dahomey  is  ever  sup- 
posed to  find  it  in  the  least  objectionable ;  it  is  only 
the  tests  of  reason  and  civilization  which  make  it 
intolerable. 

But  it  is  in  the  closing  sentence  of  the  defence, 
after  all,  that  the  weakest  point  lies.  People  of  ex- 
alted station,  it  is  said,  may  often  look  up  to  some 
nntitled  man.  In  a  right  condition  of  society — 
even  in  a  republican  condition  of  society,  as  sixty 
millions  of  people  here  maintain  it — how  can  there 
be  such  a  thing  as  an  exalted  station  ?  It  is  char- 
acter that  should  be  exalted,  not  station  ;  and  the 
more  the  character  counts  for,  the  less  important 
is  the  station.  Where  MacGregor  sits,  there  is  the 
head  of  the  table.  This  ideal  may  not  yet  be  ful- 
filled anywhere,  but  it  certainly  comes  far  nearer 


EXALTED    STATIONS.  129 

fulfilment  in  this  country  than  in  any  monarchy. 
"What  station  in  the  United  States  could  be  regard- 
ed, properly  speaking,  as  exalted  ?  I  can  think  of 
none  except  the  Presidency,  and  even  as  to  that 
such  a  phrase  would  seem  too  fulsome  for  truth. 
For  although  this  post  involves  far  more  of  direct 
personal  power  than  do  most  thrones,  yet  it  has  no 
permanence ;  it  is  held  by  a  four  years'  lease,  after 
which  the  occupant  reverts  to  the  ranks  of  common 
men.  By  our  theory  the  President  himself  is  the 
servant  of  the  people,  or,  as  the  present  incumbent 
has  expressed  it,  "  public  office  is  a  public  trust." 
The  question  has  been  seriously  raised  by  European 
reformers,  such  as  Mazzini  and  Louis  Blanc,  whether 
the  same  trust  could  not  more  fitly  be  exercised  by 
the  mere  chairman  of  a  committee,  and  Mr.  M.  D. 
Con  way  has  of  late  revived  this  theory.  Surely 
the  phrase  "  exalted  station  "  is  too  extravagant  for  a 
function  thus  temporary  and  derivative;  and  setting 
the  President  aside,  there  is  no  one  else  among  us 
on  whose  position  it  could  be  fitly  bestowed.  We 
can  recognize  the  exaltation  of  a  great  public  char- 
acter, but  hardly  of  a  "station."  For  there  is  no 
station  which  any  American  might  not  aspire  to 
hold;  and  it  would  be  the  spirit  in  which  he  held  it 
that  made  it  exalted. 

This  is  at  least  the  American  habit  of  mind,  and 
the  interest  we  habitually  take  in  what  are  called 
9 


130  WOMEN    AND    HEX. 

"  exalted  stations  "  in  other  countries  is  like  that  we 
feel  in  the  Bine-coat  School  or  the  picturesque  "  Beef- 
eaters" who  do  duty  at  the  Tower  of  London,  or  the 
powdered  footmen  who  are  gradually  vanishing  from 
the  streets  of  that  city.  The  English  habit  of  mind 
is  different;  as  Matthew  Arnold  has  said,  it  worships 
inequality.  I  remember  a  poor  English  woman,  in 
an  American  city,  who  was  thrilled  with  gratitude 
for  a  visit  from  a  certain  good-natured  old  lady, 
the  widow  of  a  very  respectable  physician.  "Only 

think,"  she  said,  "  Mrs. came  to  see  me — that 

great  lady  of  rank  !"  It  seemed  as  if  one  born  in 
the  British  Islands  could  not  be  quite  contented 
without  an  "  exalted  station  "  to  reverence. 


XXVI. 
FINER  FORCES. 

ANY  one  whom  the  railway  bears  rapidly  through 
one  American  village  after  another,  between  eight 
and  nine  o'clock  on  some  stormy  winter  morning,  is 
sure  to  sec  occasionally  through  the  windows  a  fig- 
ure so  typical  that  it  seems  to  recur  in  every  hamlet 
or  suburb.  It  is  that  of  a  woman,  usually  young 
and  slender,  clad  in  water-proof  cloak  and  India- 
rubber  boots,  and  pressing  on  with  rapid  steps 
through  the  storm.  She  may  or  may  not  be  fresh 
and  fair,  but  she  seldom  fails  to  have  a  firm  and 
resolute  expression,  as  of  one  whose  business  admits 
of  no  delay.  She  is  one  of  the  great  omnipresent 
army  of  teachers,  or,  in  other  words,  a  single  shuttle 
in  that  vast  weaving-machine  out  of  which  is  being 
woven  the  Young  America  of  the  future.  There  is 
perhaps  no  figure,  not  even  the  mail  -  carrier,  so 
ubiquitous,  or  on  the  whole  so  uniform.  Local  or- 
ganizations may  vary ;  a  State  may  be  divided  into 
townships  or  into  counties,  into  boroughs  or  into 
"hundreds;"  the  little  communities  may  be  gov- 
erned by  mayors  or  by  selectmen — it  makes  no  dif- 


132  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

fercnce;  the  "teacher"  is  the  same.  Originally  a 
Northern  institution,  she  is  becoming  naturalized  in 
the  Southern  States ;  first  recognized  along  the  At- 
lantic coast,  she  has  spread  to  the  Pacific  ;  and  Bret 
Harte  has  described  her  again  and  again  in  the  wild 
mining  towns,  always  emphasizing  her  immaculate 
starched  skirts  and  her  equally  spotless  demeanor. 
And  wherever  she  goes,  she  stands  for  the  entrance, 
during  the  last  fifty  years,  of  a  finer  force  into  our 
civilization. 

It  fell  to  the  writer's  lot,  on  his  very  earliest  en- 
trance on  the  work  of  the  school-committee  man,  to 
encounter  a  sort  of  object-lesson  in  this  finer  force. 
There  was  an  out-of-town  school,  in  a  farming  dis- 
trict, where  the  "  winter  boys"  had  long  been  a  ter- 
ror to  teachers  and  committee.  In  summer  it  was 
always  governed  by  a  woman  ;  for  the  rest  of  the 
year  a  man  had  hitherto  been  held  essential.  Yet, 
in  spite  of  masculine  authority,  the  boys  had  for 
two  successive  winters  broken  up  the  school,  ac- 
companying the  act  the  last  time  by  throwing  the 
teacher  out  of  the  window  into  a  snow-bank.  It 
was  disheartening.  Tweedledum  in  "Alice  in  Won- 
derland" points  out  that  nothing  more  inconvenient 
can  possibly  happen  to  a  man  in  battle  than  to  have 
his  head  taken  off.  Nothing  can  embarrass  strict 
school  discipline  more  than  when  the  head  of  the 
school  is  taken  off  and  thrown  out  of  the  window; 


FIXER   FORCES.  133 

nor  is  it  easy  to  fancy  the  dignity  of  a  pedagogue 
more  completely  collapsed  than  when  he  lies  on  his 
back  in  a  snow-drift,  and  gazes  upward  on  a  tri- 
umphant windowful  of  grinning  boys.  This  was 
the  final  situation  in  that  school ;  and  there  was  a 
summer  of  hopeless  doubt  as  to  what  teacher  to  put 
in  for  the  winter  season  again  approaching.  At  last 
a  veteran  member,  who  rarely  opened  his  lips,  part- 
ed them  for  this  brief  proposition,  "  Let's  appoint 
Miss  Blank" — naming  a  well-known  teacher  of  the 
centre  district.  "  Can  she  manage  that  school  ?" 
asked  some  one.  "  She  can  manage  any  school," 
was  the  brief  and  decisive  response.  Miss  Blank 
was  accordingly  put  in,  and  in  a  few  weeks  the  very 
boys  who  had  ejected  her  predecessor  were  search- 
ing the  woods  for  ground-pine  with  which  to  deck 
her  school-room.  She  had  applied  a  finer  force. 

And  this  finer  force  has  the  interest  of  being  in 
a  manner  an  American  patent.  In  France  and  Ger- 
many, Mr.  Matthew  Arnold's  reports  tell  us,  the 
school-mistress  is  a  rare  phenomenon,  and  is  never 
assigned  to  a  school  for  both  sexes,  except  for  the 
very  youngest  children.  In  England,  under  the  re- 
cent school  laws,  she  is  becoming  more  abundant ; 
but  even  there,  not  long  since,  her  social  position 
was  so  humble  that  Miss  Jean  Ingelow,  in  her 
"Studies  for  Stories,"  seriously  blames  an  ambi- 
tious young  woman  with  not  being  content  with 


134  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

her  modest  lot  as  teacher,  but  indulging  dreams  of 
rising  to  the  career  of  a  milliner.  Indeed,  so  far 
are  European  countries  from  yet  accepting  this  finer 
force  that  American  educators  who  have  stayed  in 
Europe  a  little  too  long  are  apt  to  come  back  re- 
gretting our  extensive  employment  of  women,  and 
assuming  that  because  Germany  does  not  pursue  this 
practice  it  is  not  the  best  thing  for  us.  But  Horace 
Mann,  who  knew  the  German  schools  thoroughly, 
was  the  man  through  whom  this  change  in  America 
was  chiefly  made  ;  he  found  but  little  more  than 
half  the  Massachusetts  teachers  women,  and  left 
them  five-sixths  of  that  sex.  This  he  urged,  not 
primarily  on  the  ground  of  economy — though  there 
is  no  doubt  that  it  is  the  extensive  employment  of 
women  which  alone  makes  possible  the  vast  spread 
of  our  common-school  system — but  for  the  sake  of 
what  he  called  "the  more  congenial  influences  of 
female  teaching."  "  I  believe  there  will  soon  be  an 
entire  unanimity  in  public  sentiment,"  he  wrote  in 
1837,  "in  regarding  female  as  superior  to  male 
teaching  for  voung  children." 

O  n  O 

The  influence  of  women  in  the  school,  as  in  the 
family,  is  all  the  greater  because  it  substitutes  af- 
fection for  physical  strength,  and  must  accomplish 
its  results  by  tact  and  not  by  brute  strength.  The 
class  of  forces  thus  represented,  has,  moreover,  its 
weight  in  the  community  as  a  whole,  and  reaches 


FINER   FORCES.  135 

far  beyond  the  school.  In  every  village  the  school- 
teacher is  the  natural  ally  of  all  civilizing  agencies — 
of  the  librarian,  the  lecturer,  the  clergyman.  That 
which  is  claimed  for  the  established  church  in  any 
country,  that  it  secures  the  presence  of  at  least  one 
cultivated  person  in  each  small  precinct,  is  in  a 
quiet  way  accomplished  by  the  presence  of  tho 
teacher  in  every  school  district.  And  if  it  be  claim- 
ed that  she  does  not  make  a  life-work  of  this  pur- 
suit, as  a  man  would  do,  the  answer  is  that  men 
usually  pass  as  rapidly  through  teaching  to  some 
other  profession  as  do  women  to  matrimony ;  and 
that  statistics  taken  in  several  different  towns  have 
shown  that  there  is  no  great  average  difference  in 
this  respect  between  the  sexes.  It  is  also  to  be 
noticed  that  when  a  man  leaves  this  vocation  for 
some  other,  he  often  quits  teaching  altogether ;  but 
that  when  a  woman  leaves  it  for  marriage  she  soon 
resumes  it  in  another  form,  and  applies  her  finer 
force  in  the  nursery  instead  of  the  school-room. 


XXVII. 
A   HOUSE   OF  CARDS. 

IT  is  a  curious  thing  that  the  advent  of  a  Conserv- 
ative ministry  in  England  should  have  brought  with 
it  a  series  of  illustrations  of  the  obsoleteness  and 
decay  of  the  House  of  Lords.  Mr.  Gladstone,  the 
foremost  statesman  of  England,  once  declined  an 
earldom.  On  the  other  hand,  Sir  Stafford  Northcotc 
was  transferred  from  the  House  of  Commons  to  the 
House  of  Lords,  in  order  to  lay  him  on  the  shelf, 
and  the  process  was  described  in  the  newspapers  as 
"  Sir  Stafford's  snub,"  and  as  being  "  kicked  up- 
stairs." It  came  out,  about  the  same  time,  that  Lord 
Salisbury  himself,  the  Premier  of  the  new  Conserv- 
ative ministry,  had  always  disliked  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  had  once  seriously  consulted  counsel  as 
to  the  practicability  of  resigning  his  peerage  and 
returning  to  the  House  of  Commons.  AVhcn  we 
add  to  this  the  general  regret  felt,  not  only  in  Amer- 
ica, but  in  England,  when  Alfred  Tennyson,  the  poet, 
became  Baron  Tennyson  d'Eynconrt,  it  certainly 
seems  as  if  the  English  peerage  were  but  a  house  of 
cards — showy,  brilliant,  with  at  least  four  distinct 
court  suits,  but  insecure  and  liable  to  fall. 


A    HOUSE    OF   CARDS.  137 

Another  recent  event  illustrates  clearly,  to  Ameri- 
cans at  least,  this  baseless  and  now  meaningless  in- 
stitution, which  nevertheless  so  dazzles  many.  The 
claim  to  the  Lauderdale  peerage,  in  regard  to  which 
several  of  our  own  lawyers  have  been  summoned  to 
testify,  rests  wholly  on  the  question  whether  the 
heir  to  a  certain  English  title  was  legally  married  in 
New  York  at  the  close  of  the  last  century  to  a  wom- 
an who  had  borne  him  several  children  without  mar- 
riage. If  the  final  union  was  legal,  it  legalized  these 
children;  and  Major  Maitland,  who  is  descended 
from  one  of  these,  is  an  English  peer;  if  otherwise, 
he  is  not ;  and  on  this  point  Mr.  Phclps  and  Senator 
Edmunds  give  opposite  opinions.  Now  it  is  obvi- 
ous that  this  tardy  decision  cannot  affect  in  the 
slightest  degree  the  personal  qualities,  mental,  moral, 
or  physical,  of  Major  Maitland.  lie  is  what  he  is, 
in  all  these  respects,  whether  he  is  a  lord  or  not ; 
and  yet  in  one  case  he  is  entitled  by  birth  to  legis- 
late in  what  is  still  called  the  "Upper  House  "of 
the  British  Empire,  and  to  have  the  enormous  social 
precedence  implied  in  a  title;  while  in  the  other 
case  he  loses  it.  There  could  hardly  be  a  better  re- 
ductio  ad  absurdum  of  the  whole  system  of  heredi- 
tary rank. 

It  is  true  that  the  old  French  theory  that  the 
blood  of  a  nobleman  was  chemically  distinct  from 
that  of  a  plebeian  has  pretty  well  disappeared  from 


1,38  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

the  English  mind.  It  is  generally  admitted  that  a 
great  many  English  peerages  have  a  very  dishonor- 
able origin  —  some  royal  mistress,  some  low-born 
money-lender.  Lord  St.  Leonards,  who  lately  went 
to  prison  for  the  once  high-bred  offence  of  seducing 
a  servant-maid,  was  the  grandson  of  Sir  Edward 
Sugden,  Lord-chancellor,  whose  father  was  the  court 
barber.  But  the  common  claim  is  that,  whatever 
the  origin  may  be,  the  associations  and  traditions  of 
high  birth  have  an  elevating  influence  —  that  no- 
blesse oblige,  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  I  believe  that 
nothing  can  be  shallower  than  tins  theory.  One 
makes  a  mistake  who  reads  Thackeray's  "  Four 
Georges "  and  thinks  of  it  as  revealing  a  condi- 
tion of  things  wholly  passed  by.  Any  one  who 
reads  the  admirable  sketch,  "  London  Society," 
by  "A  Foreign  Resident,"  will  get  a  companion 
picture.  But  apart  from  such  extremes,  what  an 
extraordinary  self -revelation  is  that  contained  in 
the  autobiography  of  Lord  Ronald  Gower,  a  man 
born  in  the  purple,  or  as  near  it  as  England  can 
get — the  early  resident  of  the  very  toy-palace  mi- 
nutely described  in  "Lothair" — a  man  whose  rem- 
iniscences fairly  glitter  with  great  names!  And 
what  is  the  outcome  of  it  all?  A  petty  scribbler 
in  Vanity  Fair  who  by  his  own  confession  serves 
up  his  hosts  to  ridicule  in  print  if  their  houses 
happen  to  smell  of  the  roast  mutton  on  which  their 


A    HOUSE    OF    CA11DS.  139 

high-born  guests  dine..  No  Western  cow-boy  would 
be  guilty  of  such  brutality. 

And  yet  the  last  stronghold  of  the  IIor.se  of 
Cards  is  its  supposed  influence  on  manners.  Not 
merely  untravclled  Americans,  but  even  liberal  Eng- 
lishmen, and,  still  more,  Englishwomen,  arc  even 
now  fettered  by  the  delusion.  I  remember  having 
a  long  talk  in  England,  a  dozen  years  ago,  with  a 
lady,  a  thorough  Liberal  in  politics,  who  stoutly 
maintained  the  absolute  necessity  of  an  hereditary 
aristocracy  to  keep  up  the  standard  of  good  man- 
ners. I  counted  over  to  her,  one  by  one,  the  noble- 
men I  had  happened  to  meet — -it  did  not  take  long 
— not  one  of  whom,  I  asserted,  had  what  would  be 
called  in  America  good  manners.  In  each  case  she 
admitted  it,  but  found  each  case  an  exception.  This 
one  was  a  notorious  oddity,  and  his  father  before 
him ;  that  one  was  "  a  recent  creation ;"  the  other 
was  a  "law  lord."  Cite  whom  I  might,  the  blue 
blood  was  never  at  fault.  At  last  I  said,  "Can  the 
stream  rise  above  its  source  ?  I  hear  of  very  rude 
things  as  done  by  the  royal  princes."  "  Oh,"  she 
said,  "  they  are  not  Englishmen ;  they  arc  Ger- 
mans !" 

I  believe  that  there  is  nothing  worse  for  the  man- 
ners as  well  as  morals  of  a  nation  than  to  have  a 
class  which  claims  an  hereditary  privilege  to  estab- 
lish its  own  standard,  and  which  ends  by  imposing 


140  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

that  standard  on  other  people.  The  English  aristo- 
cratic society,  Matthew  Arnold  says,  "materializes 
the  upper  classes,  vulgarizes  the  middle  classes,  and 
brutalizes  the  lower  classes."  For  a  few  foolish 
Americans  it  does  all  three  of  these  things  at  once. 


XXVIII. 
MICE  AND  MARTYRDOM. 

THAT  fine  old  Anglo-American  or  Americano-Eng- 
lishman, R S ,  used  to  tell  at  his  dinner- 
table  in  London  this  story  of  a  very  celebrated  Eng- 
lish general.  The  military  hero  was  once  dining 
with  Mr.  S ,  when  a  stray  mouse  was  seen  run- 
ning to  and  fro,  looking  for  a  hiding-place.  With 
one  spring  the  general  was  on  his  chair;  with  an- 
other, on  the  table.  Amid  much  laughter  the  host 
rose  and  proceeded  in  the  direction  of  the  mouse. 

"Oh  !  stop,  S ,"  shouted  the  man  of  war  ;  "for 

Heaven's  sake  don't  exasperate  him  !" 

The  exasperated  mouse  and  the  intimidated  be- 
holders are  still  on  duty,  it  seems,  in  Mr.  Ilowells's 
good-natured  farce,  "  The  Mouse-trap ;"  but  the  lions 
are  the  painters,  and  the  sex  is  conveniently  changed. 
Every  woman  who  comes  into  the  room  in  his  little 
drama  takes  more  or  less  gracefully  to  chair  or  table, 
when  the  mouse  is  announced ;  and  even  the  Irish  do- 
mestic follows  them,  though  I  have  generally  found 
Bridget  ready  to  enforce  home  rule  vigorously  on 
such  intruders  by  the  aid  of  a  pair  of  tongs.  The 


142  WOMEN    AND    HEX. 

only  person  in  the  tale  who  is  not  frightened  is  a 
man,  and  lie  is  not  severely  tested,  inasmuch  as  it 
was  he  who  invented  the  mouse.  But  he  is  all 
ready  to  punish  the  ladies  for  their  timidity,  and, 
with  a  discipline  severer  than  that  of  the  British 
army,  prohibits  them  from  ever  again  attacking 
the  political  opponents  of  their  sex.  What  if  the 

Queen  of  England  had  caused  General to  be 

cashiered  for  cowardice  by  reason  of  his  retreat  be- 
fore the  "exasperated"  animal? 

Crossing  the  Atlantic  once,  and  talking  with  the 
surgeon  of  the  ocean  steamer,  I  was  told  by  him 
that  in  his  wide  experience  he  had  found  women, 
on  the  whole,  cooler  than  men  in  case  of  disaster 
at  sea.  lie  told  me  of  one  occasion  when  they  ex- 
pected that  the  vessel  would  ultimately  sink,  and 
he  asked  the  one  woman  on  board  to  remain  a  few 
minutes  in  the  cabin  with  her  children,  because  they 
would  be  in  the  way  on  deck,  he  promising  to  call 
them  in  ample  time  for  safety.  When  he  went  be- 
low, all  was  so  quiet  in  the  cabin  that  he  thought 
they  must  have  gone  elsewhere,  but  he  found  the 
mother  sitting  on  the  sofa  with  the  three  children 
around  her,  telling  them  stories  in  a  low  voice  to 
keep  them  still.  All  were  carefully  dressed  in  their 
warmest  clothes,  with  everything  tied  carefully  about 
them,  ready  for  any  emergency.  She  also  had  a 
small  hand-bag  packed  with  a  few  essentials,  and  a 


MICE    AND    MARTYRDOM.  143 

pillow-case,  filled  with  ship-bread,  and  securely  tied 
at  the  top.  On  his  expressing  surprise  at  the  last 
piece  of  thoughtfulness,  she  said  that  she  had  been 
shipwrecked  once  before,  and  that  a  whole  boat's 
crew  had  subsisted  for  several  days  upon  a  similar 
supply,  which  no  one  else  had  happened  to  remem- 
ber. "  She  was  the  very  coolest  person,"  he  said, 
"  with  whom  I  ever  made  a  voyage." 

It  is  pleasant  to  see  that  the  reports  of  passengers 
on  the  ill  fated  Oregon  agree  in  the  statement  that 
the  women  on  board  behaved  well.  "An  elderly 
gentleman,"  after  describing  the  passengers  as  rush- 
ing on  deck  half  clothed  and  half  awaked,  says  that 
"the  ladies  behaved  splendidly,  considering  the  cir- 
cumstances." Mr.  M.  J.  Emerson  says  that  "  most 
of  the  men  were  very  much  excited;  the  ladies, 
however,  \vcre-vcry  cool  and  self-possessed."  Mrs. 
Emerson  "spoke  of  the  coolness  of  the  ladies,  say- 
ing that  it  was  very  noticeable."  "  Whatever  you 
say  about  it,"  said  Mr.  S.  Newton  Beach,  a  London 
merchant,  "say  this:  that  the  coolest  persons  on 
board  were  the  ladies,  as  they  always  are  when 
the  case  is  not  one  of  a  mouse,  but  one  of  real 
danger." 

What  is  the  secret  of  this  curious  variableness  of 
emotion,  this  undisguised  terror  of  the  little,  this 
courage  before  that  which  is  great  ?  It  may  be  said 
that  women  are  cool  in  shipwreck  because  they  are 


144  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

merely  passive,  or  because  they  expect  to  be  taken 
care.  of.  But  all  military  experience  shows  that  the 
passive  condition  is  least  favorable  to  courage.  The 
severest  test  of  soldiers  is  to  keep  still  under  fire 
when  they  themselves  can  do  nothing;  the  mere 
order  to  march  or  shoot  is  an  immense  relief  to  the 
nervous  tension.  Then  as  to  the  certainty  of  being 
taken  care  of,  that  is  the  very  thing  that  never  looks 
quite  sure  to  the  person  most  concerned,  especially 
where,  as  on  the  Oregon,  women  see  the  firemen 
taking  possession  of  boats  and  running  away  with 
them  before  their  eyes.  Still,  it  is  fair  to  remember 
that  a  good  deal  of  the  apparent  excitement  and  con- 
fusion among  men  in  a  shipwreck,  as  at  a  fire,  comes 
from  the  fact  that  they  feel  called  upon  as  men  to  bus- 
tle about  and  see  if  they  can  find  something  to  do — 
a  necessity  under  which  women  do  not  labor. 

When  it  comes  to  the  test  of  the  mouse,  I  fancy 
that  we  really  pass  beyond  the  domain  of  physical 
courage,  and  enter  that  of  nervous  excitability.  I 
was  once  told  by  a  very  courageous  woman  that  men 
also,  if  they  wore  long  skirts,  would  probably  scream 
and  jump  upon  chairs  whenever  a  mouse  showed  it- 
self. The  feeling  is  not  properly  to  be  called  fear, 
any  more  than  is  the  shriek  of  a  girl  when  her 
wicked  brother  puts  a  caterpillar  on  her  neck ;  she 
does  not  seriously  think  that  the  little  woolly  thing 
will  hurt  her,  but  it  makes  her  "  crawl."  Great  men 


MICE    AND    MARTYRDOM.  J45 

and  warriors  have  had  similar  nervous  loathings  for 
some  particular  animal.     Shy  lock  says, 

"  Some  men  there  are  love  not  a  gaping  pig, 
Some  that  are  mad  if  they  behold  a  cat," 

and  he  adds  that  "  there  is  no  firm  reason  to  be 
rendered  "  for  these  shrinkings.  So  the  mouse  and 
the  caterpillar  do  not  decide  the  question,  while  the 
general  fact  doubtless  is  that  the  outlets  of  tears 
and  terrors  are  made  easier  in  the  case  of  women, 
without  thereby  prejudicing  their  capacity  for  great 
endurance.  The  woman  who  weeps  over  a  little  dis- 
appointment may  be  the  same  woman  who  watches 
without  sleep  for  night  after  night  over  her  sick 
husband.  She  who  shuts  her  eyes  and  screams  at 
the  lightning  may  yet  go  in  the  path  of  rifle-bullets 
to  save  her  child.  Apparently  there  is  a  difference 
of  sex,  in  this  respect,  that  runs  through  all  nature. 
The  lion  with  his  mighty  mane  is  the  natural  pro- 
tector of  the  lioness ;  but  hunters  say  that  his  mate, 
when  in  charge  of  her  young,  is  the  more  formi- 
dable. In  what  may  be  called  aggressive  courage, 
man  is  doubtless  the  superior ;  but  woman's  courage 
is  more  the  creature  of  self-devotion,  and  woman's 
cowardice  more  purely  a  matter  of  nerves. 
10 


XXIX. 
THE  ORGANIZING  MIND. 

THERE  goes  through  the  post-office  in  early  sum- 
mer an  immense  interchange  of  views  in  respect  to 
summer  boarding-places  in  the  country.  It  is  safe 
to  say  that  in  one-half  of  these  letters  there  ap- 
pears, first  or  last,  a  remark  like  this:  "The  man 
of  the  house  is  not  very  efficient ;  it  is  his  wife  who 
carries  it  on."  In  one  case  it  was  the  man  himself 
who  frankly  admitted  the  precise  state  of  things 
to  rne,  and  volunteered  the  following  commentary : 
"The  reason  is,  you  see,  that  it  is  my  wife  who  has 
what  I  call  the  organizing  mind." 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  philosophy  in  this  honest 
man's  admission,  and  he  saw  just  the  point  which 
many  of  our  amateur  political  economists  and  labor 
reformers  seem  to  me  to  miss.  They  assume  that 
the  hands  of  man  produce  everything — clothes,  food, 
and  fuel.  This  may  be  true  in  certain  tropical 
countries,  where  clothes  and  fuel  are  almost  superflu- 
ous, and  food  is  obtained  by  stretching  out  the  hands 
and  picking  a  fruit.  But  the  theory  certainly  becomes 
false  so  soon  as  man  has,  or  needs  to  have,  a  more 


THE    ORGANIZING    MIND.  147 

systematic  way  of  living.  Wherever  \vc  drive  in 
our  summer  jaunts  through  the  country  we  see 
cither  the  farmer  at  work  in  his  fields  or  the  opera- 
tive in  some  little  factory  village.  Yet  the  factory 
village  has  not  been  created  by  the  "  hands,"  but  by 
some  one's  head  or  by  a  scries  of  heads.  If  it  were 
burned  down  to-morrow,  those  who  now  labor  in  it 
would  probably  be  powerless  to  recreate  it  and  carry 
it  on,  even  if  all  the  capital  it  cost  were  put  into  their 
pockets.  It  seems  unfair  that  the  man  who  lives  in 
the  largest  house  in  the  village,  and  who  never  docs 
a  stroke  of  bodily  labor,  should  have  more  consider- 
ation than  those  who  work  with  their  hands  from 
morning  till  night.  But  the  reason  is  that  he  is 
more  important  to  the  village  than  all  the  rest:  his 
place  cannot  be  filled,  while  theirs  can.  lie  has  the 
organizing  mind,  or  at  least  represents  some  one  else 
who  has  it. 

In  case  of  the  farmer,  or  at  least  the  farmer  of 
the  Atlantic  States,  the  distinction  is  less  obvious, 
because  his  labor  is  less  highly  organized.  He  not 
only  does  his  own  work,  but  plans  it  also.  Yet  he 
uses  at  every  moment  the  tools  and  processes  which 
only  the  highest  organization  has  perfected ;  his 
mower,  his  reaper,  even  his  plough  and  pitchfork, 
are  the'  result  of  organizing  mind  brought  to  bear 
in  some  great  establishment,  perhaps  a  thousand 
miles  away.  Not  only  does  the  organizing  mind 


148  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

control  the  working  hand,  but  it  controls  even  the 
merely  inventive  mind;  and  every  improvement  in 
the  curves  of  a  ploughshare  is  the  result  of  a  series 
of  single  suggestions  of  separate  inventors  combined 
by  some  organizer  into  a  structure  which  is,  com- 
pared with  the  original  sharpened  stick,  almost 
wholly  the  product  of  intellect.  There  is  nothing 
which  commands  such  power  as  organizing  mind, 
unless  it  be  that  subtle  faculty  which  \vc  call  genius 
in  the  poet  or  the  man  of  science — a  finer  and  high- 
er force,  which  unconsciously  remoulds  the  world, 
organizing  mind  and  all. 

I  have  been  hoping  all  my  life  to  see  some  signs 
that  co-operation  will  one  day  displace  competition  ; 
but  that  day  seems  as  far  off  as  ever,  because  it  is 
competition,  not  co-operation,  that  knows  how  to 
avail  itself  of  the  organizing  mind.  All  the  testi- 
mony from  England,  where  co-operation  has  gone 
much  farther  than  here,  is  to  the  effect  that  while 
distributive  co-operation — that  is,  the  selling  of 
goods  on  that  method — has  been  carried  very  far, 
yet  productive  co-operation,  or  the  production  of 
goods  by  joint  effort,  has  made  very  little  progress. 
The  explanation  is  very  obvious.  The  ablest  writ- 
er who  has  come  from  the  ranks  of  hand-labor  in 
England,  so  far  as  I  know,  Thomas  "Wright — who 
calls  himself  "  The  Working  Engineer,"  and  names 
his  book  "  Our  New  Masters  " — charges  the  difficulty 


THE    ORGANIZING   MIND.  149 

to  the  impossibility  of  enlisting  the  organizing  mind 
on  the  side  of  co-operation.  There  is,  he  says,  such 
a  thing  as  "a  capitalist  talent,"  and  the  existence  of 
this  is  fatal  to  co-operation,  because  workmen  them- 
selves cannot  be  relied  upon  either  to  find  out  this 
talent  or  to  trust  it.  The  objection  does  not  seem 
quite  conclusive,  when  we  remember  that  Carlyle 
and  others  have  considered  all  republican  govern- 
ment impracticable  on  the  same  ground — that  hu- 
man beings  could  not  or  would  not  of  themselves 
select  their  ablest  men  to  rule  them.  In  govern- 
mental affairs  this  has  been  partly  compensated  by 
the  fact  that  men  have  at  least  learned  better  to 
rule  themselves.  For  some  reason  or  other  this 
principle  does  not  apply  itself  so  readily  in  business 
as  in  politics.  Perhaps  it  is  because  business,  which 
concerns  every  man's  bread,  is  more  intense  and  ab- 
sorbing than  politics,  and  hence  is  reorganized  more 
slowly. 

Undoubtedly  the  practical  quality  that  needs  most 
to  be  developed  in  women  is  the  organizing  mind. 
Not  merely  for  the  keeping  of  boarding-houses,  but 
for  all  other  purposes,  what  they  need  the  most  is 
the  power  of  headship,  the  capacity  of  managing  a 
large  enterprise,  and  having  other  workers  to  labor 
under  their  direction.  It  is  idle  to  say  that  they 
are  wanting  by  nature  in  this  faculty ;  the  State  has 
always  assumed  that  it  was  a  thing  to  be  expected 


150  WOMEN    AND   MEN". 

of  queens,  and  the  Church  has  recognized  it  alike  in 
the  abbesses  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  and  in 
the  deaconesses  of  Protestantism.  It  has  been  de- 
veloped more  slowly  in  women,  because  the  exigen- 
cies of  home  and  child-bearing  have  largely  preoc- 
cupied them  and  have  made  it  necessary  for  men  to 
undertake  the  task  of  organizing  the  life  and  labor 
of  the  world.  But  no  one  who  sees  how  rapidly 
women  have  come,  during  the  last  thirty  years,  into 
the  charge  of  great  benevolent  operations,  such  as 
were  once  left  to  men  only,  can  doubt  the  existence 
of  a  gradually  maturing  power  in  them,  which  shall 
yet  make  them  far  more  potent  factors  even  than 
now  in  public  works.  Meantime,  the  knowledge  of 
their  own  need  of  organizing  mind  should  give 
them  a  good  object-lesson  in  political  economy, 
and  enable  them  to  understand  much  that  is  now 
puzzling.  As  society  advances  to  greater  compli- 
cation we  need  the  organizing  mind  more  and  more; 
we  cannot  ignore  its  existence ;  we  must  have  its 
service;  we  must  pay  its  price.  For  many  years 
to  come  the  natural  organizers  will  have  largely  the 
management  of  the  world  ;  and  almost  all  social 
inequalities  result  from  the  fact  that  there  are  still 
too  few  such  organizers  to  get  the  world's  work 
well  done. 


XXX. 
THE  SEARCH  AFTER  A  PUBLISHER. 

EVERY  literary  man  expects  to  receive  every  week 
or  two  a  letter,  generally  from  a  woman,  containing 
some  sentences  like  the  following: 

"  I  have  lately  written  two  stories  for  the  , 

which,  to  my  great  disappointment,  were  returned. 
Could  you  not  recommend  me  to  some  paper  where 
such  stories  would  be  accepted?  I  think,  compar- 
ing them  with  even  the  literature  of  the  best  maga- 
zines and  papers,  that  they  will  not  fall  below  it 
much.  I  have  some  longer  stories  that  I  think 
might  be  accepted  by  some  papers  or  magazines  if 
I  only  had  some  good  friend  to  speak  a  word  for 
me.  Now  my  health  is  better,  and  I  could  write 
constantly  if  I  could  only  receive  encouragement. 
I  would  gladly  write  a  year  without  payment,  if  at 
the  end  of  the  year  I  could  commence  to  receive 
remuneration  for  them.  Please,  dear  sir,  to  answer 
me,  and  give  me  some  hints.  Oh,  if  I  could  write, 
and  after  a  time  get  payment  for  my  articles,  I 
should  be  a  most  happy  being !  and  if  you  can  se- 
cure me  a  place  in  some  paper,  so  that  I  can  have  a 


152  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

chance  to  rise  higher,  I  will  bless  yon  all  the  days 
of  my  life.  I  have  had  much  to  keep  me  down 
— poverty  and  sickness;  but  for  the  next  year  I 
can  write  constantly  if  I  can  only  get  encourage- 
ment." 

This  is  taken  literally,  except  that  the  spelling 
is  corrected,  from  the  last  letter  of  the  kind  that 
reached  me.  They  come  almost  invariably  from 
small  towns  or  inland  cities,  and  this  one  is  from 
a  village  on  the  Pacific  coast.  It  is  based,  as  they 
usually  are,  upon  two  utter  delusions.  These  are, 
firstly,  that  publication,  like  the  proverbial  kissing, 
"  goes  by  favor,"  so  that  all  one  needs  is  a  friend  at 
court;  and  secondly,  that  literature  is  the  one  voca- 
tion that  needs  neither  training  nor  practice  nor 
gradual  preparation.  Let  us  consider  these  two 
errors  a  little. 

First,  as  to  "  influence."  If  there  is  a  class  of 
men  on  the  face  of  the  earth  who  may  be  said  to 
know  their  own  minds,  it  is,  I  think,  the  editors  of 
American  periodicals.  They  may  not  aim  at  the 
right  thing,  but  they  at  least  know  what  they  aim 
at.  What  they  seek  is  what  their  public  desires; 
but  their  own  interpretation  of  this  is  a  matter  of 
life  and  death  to  them,  and  they  stand  by  it.  So 
far  as  I  have  seen,  no  men  are  less  influenced  by  the 
ties  of  personal  friendship  or  by  the  judgment  of 
others.  In  a  considerable  experience  of  literature 


THE    SEARCH    AFTER    A    PUBLISHER.  153 

I  Lave  known  but  one  editor  over  whom  any  lit- 
erary recommendations  of  mine  appeared  to  have 
the  slightest  influence ;  and  even  this  was  not, 
after  all,  a  real  influence,  but  consisted  only  in 
knowing  him  so  intimately  as  to  foretell  pretty  ac- 
curately what  his  judgment  would  be.  As  to  coax- 
ing him  against  his  judgment,  it  was  impossible. 
In  truth,  literary  men  are  secretly  rather  distrusted 
by  editors,  and  with  some  reason,  as  having  too 
many  favorites  and  being  too  lenient.  The  late 
Professor  Longfellow,  for  instance,  would  soon  have 
bankrupted  any  publisher  who  should  have  accept- 
ed the  intellectual  work  that  he  praised,  for  he  was 
so  amiable  that  he  praised  almost  everything;  and 
there  is  evidence  that  Holmes  and  Whittier,  as  they 
grow  older,  are  growing  almost  as  tolerant.  If  the 
best  literary  indorsement  thus  goes  for  very  little, 
what  can  the  second-best  be  worth  ?  Moreover,  the 
editor  is  constantly  looking  out  for  new  names;  he 
hungers  and  thirsts  after  the  genius  of  the  future. 
Just  as  the  great  trotting  horses  of  the  turf  arc  often 
those  which  the  keen  eye  of  a  jockey  has  rescued 
from  a  dray  or  a  coal-cart,  so  it  is  the  editor's  dream 
to  detect  a  coming  Mark  Twain  or  Bret  Harte  in 
some  nameless  young  aspirant.  Past  celebrities,  he 
knows  very  well,  go  rapidly  off  the  stage  ;  what  he 
wants  is  a  fresh  one.  The  difficulty  is  to  know  his 
rising  genius  when  still  harnessed  to  the  coal-cart ; 


154  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

and  here  he  must  trust  only  himself  and  take  his 
own  risks. 

Now  as  to  entering  the  profession  of  literature. 
My  correspondent  who  writes  the  above  letter  knows 
that,  if  she  has  a  son  or  a  brother  who  wishes  suc- 
cess as  a  physician  or  a  watch-maker,  he  must  take 
time  to  train  himself  for  his  work — must  educate 
his  observation,  his  memory,  his  very  sense  of  touch, 
for  that  pursuit — and  the  education  will  involve  time, 
patience,  tools,  and  a  teacher.  Why  is  it  that  she 
herself  expects  to  enter  at  once  on  a  profession  in- 
volving wider  observation  and  more  delicate  forces 
than  either  medicine  or  watch-making,  without  any 
special  preparation  whatever?  This  is  the  discour- 
aging thing  about  almost  all  letters  of  this  class, 
that  they  are  so  rarely  accompanied  by  any  sign 
of  personal  humility.  What  the  most  successful 
writers  have  won  by  years  of  early  study,  followed 
by  other  years  of  incessant  practice,  these  aspirants 
expect  to  gain  at  a  grasp.  The  very  letter  from 
which  the  above  quotation  is  given  contained 
eleven  misspellings,  so  little  attention  had  been 
given  by  the  writer  to  the  very  rudiments.  Like 
the  country  girl  who  came  to  consult  Mrs.  Fanny 
Kemble  Butler  about  her  career  as  an  elocutionist, 
and  explained  frankly  that  what  she  wanted  was 
not  to  learn  how  to  read  in  public,  but  how  to  get 
her  audiences  together,  so  these  mistaken  persons 


THE    SEARCH    AFTER    A    PUBLISHER.          155 

are   looking   out   for   external   success,  when  they 
should  be  busy  with  the  training  that  leads  to  it. 

AY  hat  success  commonly  stands  for  is  this,  that 
a  writer  has  either  done  really  good  work — work 
excellent  in  itself  —  or  else  has  done  the  kind  of 
work  that  the  public  demands,  good  or  bad.  This 
last  is  a  lower  standard  of  success,  of  course,  though 
it  often  brings  greater  pecuniary  rewards;  but  it  is 
a  clear  and  definite  thing,  nevertheless,  and  needs  as 
distinct  a  training  as  the  other.  In  cither  case 
triumph  usually  follows  merit,  though  often  slowly. 
"  There  never  was  a  good  tongue,"  says  old  Fuller, 
"  that  lacked  ears  to  hear  it."  "  Excel  and  you 
will  live"  (excelle  et  tu  vivras),  says  the  prince  of 
French  aphorists,  Joseph  Joubert.  There  are  grades 
in  merit:  it  is  merit  to  produce  a  work  of  genius; 
but  there  is  also  a  great,  though  lower,  merit  in 
studying  the  taste  of  your  time,  watching  its  tenden- 
cies, and  thereby  producing  just  the  work  that  is 
currently  demanded  —  just  what  readers  want  and 
children  cry  for.  This  also  needs  labor  and  special 
preparation.  The  advice  I  should  therefore  give 
to  every  young  person  who  asks  me  how  to  find  a 
publisher,  would  be,  if  I  dared — for  we  arc  all  weak 
— "  First  produce  something  so  good  that  no  pub- 
lisher can  afford  to  do  without  it." 


XXXI. 

MEN'S  NOVELS  AND  WOMEN'S  NOVELS. 

IT  is  ,1  curious  fact  that  Paris,  to  which  the  works 
of  Jane  Austen  were  lately  as  unknown  as  if  she 
were  an  English  painter,  lias  just  discovered  her  ex- 
istence. Moreover,  it  has  announced  that  she,  and 
she  only,  is  .the  founder  of  that  realistic  school  which 
is  construed  to  include  authors  so  remote  from  each 
other  as  the  French  Zola  and  the  American  Ilowells. 
The  most  decorous  of  maiden  ladies  is  thus  made  to 
originate  the  extreme  of  indecorum ;  and  the  good 
loyal  Englishwoman,  devoted  to  Church  and  King, 
is  made  sponsor  for  the  most  democratic  recognition 
of  persons  whom  she  would  have  loathed  as  vulgar. 
There  is  something  extremely  grotesque  in  the  situ- 
ation ;  and  yet  there  is  much  truth  in  the  theory. 
It  certainly  looked  at  one  time  as  if  Miss  Austen 
had  thoroughly  established  the  claim  of  her  sex  to 
the  minute  delineation  of  character  and  manners, 
leaving  to  men  the  bolder  school  of  narrative  ro- 
mance. She  herself  spoke  of  her  exquisitely  wrought 
novels  as  her  "  little  bit  of  ivory,  two  inches  wide, 
on  which,"  she  said,  "  I  work  with  a  brush  so  fine 


MEN'S  NOVELS  AND  WOMEN'S  NOVELS.    157 

as  to  produce  little  effect  after  innch  labor."  Yet 
in  the  opinion  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  all  succeed- 
ing critics,  the  result  was  quite  worth  the  effort, 
Scott  saying  that  he  himself  did  the  "  big  bow-wow 
style  as  well  as  anybody,"  but  that  all  the  minuter 
excellences  were  peculiarly  her  province.  As  a  re- 
sult, she  has  far  surpassed  in  fame  her  immediate 
contemporaries  of  her  own  sex.  Madame  D'Arblay 
(Fanny  Burney),  Miss  Porter,  Mrs.  Opie,  and  even 
Miss  Edgeworth,  are  now  little  read,  while  Miss  Aus- 
ten's novels  seem  as  if  they  were  written  yesterday. 

But  the  curious  thing  is  that  of  the  leading  nov- 
elists in  the  English  tongue  to-day  it  is  the  men, 
not  the  women,  who  have  taken  up  Miss  Austen's 
work,  while  the  women  show  more  inclination,  if 
not  to  the  "big  bow-wow  style"  of  Scott,  at  least 
to  the  novel  of  plot  and  narrative.  Anthony  Trol- 
lope  among  the  lately  dead,  James  and  llowells 
among  the  living,  are  the  lineal  successors  of  Miss 
Austen.  Perhaps  it  is  an  old-fashioned  taste  which 
leads  me  to  think  that  neither  of  these  does  his 
work  quite  so  well  as  she  ;  but  they  all  belong  to 
the  same  photographic  school ;  each  sets  up  his  ap- 
paratus and  takes  what  my  little  nephew  called  a 
"  flannelly  group  "  of  a  household,  or  a  few  house- 
holds, leaving  the  great  world  of  adventure  un- 
touched. But  what  plots  and  enterprises  we  obtain 
in  these  days,  on  the  other  hand,  from  women  nov- 


158  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

elists — ranging  up  from  the  Braddons  and  Ouidas  to 
the  best  novel  written  by  a  woman  since  George 
Eliot  died,  as  it  seems  to  me — Mrs.  Jackson's  "  Ra- 
tnona."  What  action  is  there  !  what  motion  !  how 
entrainant  it  is  !  It  carries  us  along  as  if  mounted 
on  a  swift  horse's  back  from  beginning  to  end ;  and 
it  is  only  when  we  return  for  a  second  reading  that 
we  can  appreciate  the  fine  handling  of  the  char- 
acters, and  especially  the  Spanish  mother,  drawn 
with  a  stroke  as  keen  and  firm  as  that  which  por- 
trayed George  Eliot's  Dorothea.  In  such  a  book 
we  see  that  the  really  great  novel  includes  the  cre- 
ation of  character,  and  does  not  stop  there  ;  for  af- 
ter all  one  asks,  What  is  the  use  of  the  finest  de- 
lineation of  persons  if  they  do  nothing  worth  doing 
after  they  are  created  ?  The  trouble  with  James 
and  Howells  seems  to  be  that  they  expend  all  their 
strength  in  the  masterly  construction  of  marionettes ; 
and  after  these  little  personages  arc  so  real  that  they 
seem  as  good  as  alive  they  are  made  to  do  nothing 
more  than  throw  their  arms  and  legs  about  a  while, 
as  very  inferior  puppets  might  do.  Is  it  worth 
while  to  have  almost  the  very  breath  of  life  breathed 
into  these  little  people  in  order  that,  as  a  result,  they 
may  arrive  at  the  top  of  an  elevator,  or  build  a  new 
house  on  the  Back  Bay  ?  However,  it  is  not  my 
object  to  show  that  the  novel  of  adventure,  if  well 
done,  really  includes  the  novel  of  character,  but  to 


MEN'S  NOVELS  AND  WOMEN'S  NOVELS.    159 

point  out  that,  just  at  present  at  least,  the  two  sexes 
have  temporarily  changed  hands  as  to  the  work 
they  are  doing  in  fiction. 

Will  the  new  distribution  of  parts  be  permanent? 
Very  likely  not.  It  is  extremely  probable  that  this, 
like  many  other  things  attributed  to  sex,  is  really  a 
matter  of  individuality  alone,  or  of  temporary  fash- 
ion. What  confirms  this  is  the  fact  that  still  earlier 
women  novelists  wrote  the  novel  of  adventure,  as 
their  successors  are  again  doing.  There  lies  before 
me  one  of  the  vast  folio  romances  of  Mile.  Scuderi, 
published,  like  most  of  hers,  under  her  brother's 
name,  and  translated  into  English  by  Henry  Cogan 
in  1674.  It  is  in  four  parts,  each  divided  into  five 
books,  and  each  book  as  long  as  half  the  novels 
of  these  degenerate  days.  The  most  "  lonely  and 
athletic  student,"  to  adopt  Emerson's  phrase  as  to 
the  readers  of  Swedenborg,  could  now  hardly  get 
through  two  successive  books  of  it ;  yet  such  colos- 
sal romances  were  read  with  delight  by  our  ances- 
tors and  ancestresses,  even  on  this  side  of  the  water, 
though  doubtless  somewhat  surreptitiously  in  the 
Puritan  households.  The  plot  flows  as  languidly  as  a 
Dutch  river,  and  is  as  much  distributed  and  subdivid- 
ed by  artificial  dams  and  placid  inundations ;  yet  it 
is  a  woman's  book ;  and  the  plots  of  Mile.  Scuderi's 
stories  were  sufficiently  exciting,  at  any  rate,  to 
cause  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  the  lady  and 


160       -  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

her  brother,  after  they  had  discussed  too  heedlessly 
at  an  inn  the  question  whether  they  should  slay  the 
Prince  Mazare  by  poison  or  the  sword.  And  what 
high-sounding  moralities !  what  heroic  platitudes ! 
"  For  if  the  difficulties  be  great,  according  to  Vin- 
centio's  opinion,  your  courage  is  yet  greater.  Let 
us  grant  him  that  the  enterprise  is  dangerous  and 
difficult;  in  what  history,  ancient  or  modern,  hath  it 
been  found  that  the  way  which  conducteth  to  glory 
is  covered  with  flowers,  and  that  an  illustrious  action 
hath  been  executed  without  pain  ?" 

A  hundred  years  later  women  touched  the  novel 
of  plot  and  adventure  with  a  bolder  grasp,  and  Mrs. 
Radcliffe's  romances  seemed  the  joint  offspring  of 
"  big  bow  -  wow  "  and  nightmare  parentage.  But 
they  too  moved  with  sweep  and  power;  she  was 
strong  in  description  and  invention  ;  she  bridged 
the  interval  between  the  medieval  and  modern  nov- 
el, and  painted  landscape  so  well  that  even  Byron 
sometimes  borrowed  from  her.  The  minute  study 
of  character  she  left,  unattempted,  for  Jane  Austen 
to  take  up.  It  is  plain  that  women  novelists,  like 
men,  incline  sometimes  to  one  branch  of  the  art, 
sometimes  to  another ;  and  that  the  accident  of 
personal  preference  or  the  fashion  of  the  period  has 
more  to  do  with  the  decision  than  any  tendency 
growing  out  of  sex. 


XXXII. 
WOMEN  AS  HOUSEHOLD  DECORATORS. 

IT  once  happened  to  me  to  spend  a  day  or  two  in 
a  country-house  where  the  different  rooms  gave  un- 
conscious object-lessons  to  show  the  gradual  change 
of  taste  in  household  decoration.  One  room — the 
sitting-room  of  an  elderly  invalid — represented  what 
might  be  called  the  iron  age  of  furnishing;  every- 
thing was  dark  mahogany  and  hair-cloth  ;  there  was 
not  a  chair  or  a  sofa  on  which  you  could  retain 
your  scat  without  a  struggle,  so  polished  and  so 
slippery  were  they  all.  The  walls  were  hung  with 
dark  portraits  in  dark  frames,  or  smaller  daguerreo- 
types in  circles  of  black  walnut;  the  only  spots  of 
color  were  found  in  one  faded  sampler,  and  in  the 
gilded  circular  frame  of  a  very  small  mirror  hung 
too  high  for  use.  It  was  curious  to  pass  from  this 
sombre  abode  into  the  bedroom  I  occupied,  which 
had  been  fitted  up  by  an  elder  sister,  long  since  mar- 
ried, and  whose  girlhood  fell  in  what  might  be  called 
the  glacial  period  of  thirty  years  ago.  Here  every- 
thing was  white  instead  of  dark — white  Parian  stat- 
uettes, white  fluffy  embroideries,  a  white  cross  cut 
11 


162  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

in  complicated  fashion  oat  of  paper,  surrounded 
with  white  flowers  and  hung  in  a  white  frame 
against  a  white  wall.  On  the  mantle-piece  stood  a 
pair  of  cut-glass  vases,  bearing  great  clusters  of  dried 
grasses,  bleached  almost  colorless  by  time.  The  fur- 
niture was  of  straw,  and  the  counterpane  was  of 
white  damask.  If  the  room  of  the  iron  age  was  de- 
pressing, this  was  even  more  so ;  it  was  like  pass- 
ing from  an  underground  cave  into  a  chilly  world 
of  ice.  But  a  third  experience  was  offered  on  pro- 
ceeding to  the  parlor,  which  had  been  given  over  to 
the  charge  of  the  youngest  daughter,  fresh  from  an 
art  school.  From  this  room  every  article  of  pure 
white  or  jet  black  had  been  banished  ;  the  eye  wan- 
dered from  one  half  tint  to  another,  or  if  any  bit  of 
positive  color  arrested  the  gaze,  it  was  some  unex- 
pected stroke  of  bold  yellow  or  regal  red.  No  two 
chairs  were  alike;  nothing  was  paired;  the  carved 
marble  mantle-piece  was  concealed  by  a  lambrequin  ; 
there  were  screens,  fans,  a  knot  of  some  Oriental 
stuff  at  the  back  of  every  chair,  three  various  vases 
of  bulrushes,  and  seven  seltzer-water  jars  painted  by 
the  young  lady  herself.  This  room  did  not  belong 
to  the  iron  age,  nor  yet  to  the  glacial,  but  to  the  re- 
cent or  Japanese  formation.  Considered  as  a  step 
forward  from  the  earlier  stages  represented  in  that 
house,  it  indicated  a  great  advance ;  regarded  as  a 
finality,  it  was  something  to  appall  the  human  heart. 


WOMEN  AS   HOUSEHOLD   DECORATORS.       163 

Now  all  these  successive  transformations  were  the 
work  of  women,  and  they  suggest  the  question,  If 
woman  is  thus  the  born  and  appointed  decorator  of 
the  home,  why  should  she  not  be  trained  to  do  it 
artistically  and  professionally  ?  It  is  not  truly  artis- 
tic to  plunge  at  once  into  the  most  exclusive  extreme 
of  the  present  fashion,  whether  it  lead  to  black,  or 
white,  or  a  multiplicity  of  hue,  but  to  take  what  is 
truly  the  best  of  each  period  and  adapt  it  gracefully 
to  modern  use  and  to  the  needs  of  each  separate 
family.  In  many  houses  this  is  now  exquisitely 
done;  no  one  can  deny  the  great  improvement  in 
our  "  interiors"  within  twenty  years.  But  if  it  is 
to  be  done  systematically  for  the  community,  it  is 
impossible  to  leave  it  wholly  to  amateurs.  The 
modern  decoration  implies  architects,  designers,  and 
artificers  of  its  own.  In  the  foreman  of  an  art-black- 
smith's shop  I  found  the  other  day  one  whom  I  had 
previously  known  as  a  working  jeweller;  he  had 
simply  transferred  his  energy  and  skill  from  gold 
and  silver  to  brass  and  iron,  and  was  laboring  with 
hands  harder  than  before,  yet  no  less  cunning,  upon 
graceful  gas-fixtures  and  i»-door  ornamentations  of 
his  own  designing.  It  must  be  the  same  with  wom- 
en ;  they  must  undergo  professional  training  to  do 
their  best.  Here  is  this  whole  continent  waiting  to 
be  made  graceful  and  beautiful  in  its  in-door  homes. 
It  is  said  by  dealers  that,  outside  of  a  few  large 


164  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

cities,  there  is  absolutely  no  arrangement  to  supply 
this  demand — no  one  who  can  give  to  a  young  cou- 
ple setting  np  their  house-keeping  more  than  that 
amount  of  information  possessed  by  the  average 
furniture  dealer,  which  is  very  little.  For  want  of 
this,  many  a  young  pair,  as  their  wedding-day  ap- 
proaches, sit  down  and  ponder  helplessly  over  some 
book  on  "  The  House  Beautiful,"  or  "  In-cloor  Dec- 
oration," until  their  souls  are  filled  with  despair. 
Where  are  they  to  find  these  charming  portieres, 
these  aesthetic  wall-papers,  these  delightful  Russian 
wash-bowls  that  are  lighter  and  prettier  and  cheap- 
er and  more  durable  than  any  china?  And  the 
dealers  receive  unavailing  letters  from  a  thousand 
miles  away,  asking  for  the  wrong  things  or  under 
the  wrong  names,  and  ending  in  failure  ?  What  is 
the  remedy  ? 

The  remedy  is  for  a  few  women  first,  and  then  a 
good  many  women,  after  training  themselves  prop- 
erly, to  take  up  decoration  as  a  profession.  Let, 
any  two  bright  and  capable  girls  who  have  wearied 
themselves  in  painting  water-colors  that  people  do 
not  want,  or  Christmas-cards  for  which  the  market 
is  waning,  try  another  experiment.  Let  them,  after 
studying  in  the  art  schools  of  New  York  or  Boston 
or  Cincinnati,  make  also  a  careful  study  of  the  mar- 
kets and  workshops  of  those  cities,  so  far  as  they 
relate  to  decoration  ;  and  then  go,  armed  with  cir- 


WOMEN    AS    HOUSEHOLD    DECORATOKS.       165 

culars,  price -lists,  plans,  and  patterns,  to  establish 
themselves  as  household  decorators  in  some  interior 
city  where  the  wave  of  modern  improvement  has  thus 
far  come  only  as  a,  matter  of  intelligent  interest,  not 
of  systematic  supply.  They  will  have  to  wait  a  while, 
no  doubt,  to  command  public  confidence,  or  even  to 
make  their  mission  understood  ;  but  they  will  not 
have  to  wait  so  long  as  their  brothers  will  wait  for 
clients  or  for  patients.  They  will  need  to  be  very 
practical,  very  accurate,  very  efficient,  and  very  pa- 
tient. The  great  dealers  in  the  larger  cities  will- 
gladly  make  them  their  agents,  give  them  letters  of 
introduction,  and  pay  them  a  commission  on  sales. 
With  a  little  tact  they  can  learn  to  co-operate  with 
the  local  dealers,  to  whom  they  will  naturally  leave 
the  coarser  supplies,  devoting  themselves  to  the  finer 
touches.  If  they  succeed  at  all,  their  circle  of  clients 
or  correspondents  may  extend  through  whole  States, 
and  they  will  help  to  refine  the  life  and  thought  of 
the  nation.  By  all  means  let  us  see  women  take 
up  household  decoration  as  an  educated  profession. 


XXXIII. 
VOICES. 

AN  exceedingly  well-informed  young  woman  said 
to  another,  in  my  hearing,  the  other  day,  "  Do  you 
not  think  that  there  is  something  in  a  voice  ?"  It 
was  my  impulse  to  answer,  "  There  is  everything  in 
a  voice."  What  is  beauty,  symmetry,  or  grace  in 
man  or  woman  if,  the  moment  the  lips  part,  there 
issue  sounds  so  discordant  that  they  drive  you  away 
like  the  harsh  scream  of  a  peacock  ?  If  we  travel 
in  the  dark  by  stage-coach  or  sleeping-car,  we  in- 
stantly form  an  opinion  of  every  person  around  us 
whose  voice  we  hear.  Their  standard  of  manners, 
their  chances  of  training,  their  course  of  education, 
often  the  very  locality  from  which  they  come,  re- 
veal themselves.  Qualities  of  character,  as  peevish- 
ness or  sweetness,  habitual  interests,  home  habits, 
all  indicate  themselves  there.  And  yet  the  voice 
has  been  until  lately  quite  neglected  in  our  schools. 
At  this  day,  if  anything  is  taught  in  that  direction, 
it  is  mainly  elocution  ;  that  is,  the  pronunciation  of 
words  and  the  utterance  of  sentences,  while  the 


VOICES.  167 

voice  itself,  which  is  the  foundation  of  all  elocu- 
tion, remains  untrained. 

Yet  there  is  no  training  which  we  as  a  nation 
need  more.  Whether  by  change  of  climate  or  of 
habits,  we  in  this  country  have  lost  the  good  aver- 
age of  clear  enunciation  which  prevails  in  England. 
Through  the  general  spread  of  popular  education 
we  have  really  less  of  local  dialect  than  the  English; 
and  the  mere  pronunciation  of  words  is  on  the 
whole  as  well  done  here ;  it  is  in  the  tones  of  voice 
that  the  disadvantage  lies.  English  people  make 
the  mistake  of  supposing  that  what  they  call  "  the 
American  twang  "  is  universal,  just  as  we  make  the 
mistake  of  supposing  the  dropped  "  h  "  to  be  uni- 
versal in  England ;  but  each  evil  is  too  common. 
Nor  is  it  in  comparing  the  best-trained  people  es- 
pecially that  we  notice  any  drawback  among  our- 
selves, for  English  public  speakers  are  very  awk- 
ward compared  to  ours ;  and  there  is  now  much  of 
the  Dundreary  affectation  in  London  fashionable 
circles.  But  that  the  ordinary  well-to-do  English- 
man speaks  in  a  more  agreeable  voice  than  the 
ordinary  well-to-do  American  is  something  that 
there  is  no  use  in  denying ;  and  when  the  compari- 
son is  applied  to  the  average  woman,  the  answer 
is  still  more  inevitable.  I  must  confess  to  prefer- 
ring a  well-bred  American  woman  to  her  English 
compeer  in  every  aspect  but  this  one;  her  greater 


168  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

quickness  of  mind  is  as  unquestionable  as  her  greater 
vivacity  of  spirits  or  taste  in  dress  ;  it  is  only  when 
you  come  to  the  voice  that  she  is  at  a  disadvantage. 
It  is  not  that  one  does  not  hear  attractive  voices  of 
women  in  America;  they,  indeed,  are  growing  more 
and  more  common,  and  this  is  encouraging,  because 
it  shows  that  the  climate  offers  no  real  obstacle. 
But,  after  all,  there  is  in  the  voice  of  the  typical 
English  "gentlewoman,"  tame,  conventional,  narrow 
though  she  may  be,  a  peculiar  and  soothing  charm 
— a  combination  of  mellowness  and  clearness  and 
crispness  that  makes  you  willing,  for  the  first  few 
days  at  least,  to  listen  to  the  very  tamest  discourse 
on  lawn-tennis  or  water-colors  or  the  new  curate, 
for  the  sake  of  the  agreeable  vehicle  by  which  it 
comes. 

It  is  amusing  to  find  that  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie 
— "  the  star-spangled  Scotchman,"  as  William  Black, 
the  novelist,  appropriately  calls  him — interrupts  his 
altogether  jubilant  book  on  "  Triumphant  Democra- 
cy "  by  an  expression  of  discontent  over  the  Amer- 
ican voice — the  only  thing  about  which  he  makes 
the  slightest  concession.  "  The  American  voice,"  he 
says,  "  is  thin  to  begin  with — the  effect  of  climate, 
I  fear — and  to  this  is  added  the  abominable  prac- 
tice of  slurring  over  or  cutting  off  inconvenient 
syllables.  The  American  woman  is  the  most  intel- 
ligent, entertaining,  and  agreeable  in  the  world.  If 


VOICES.  169 

she  had  her  English  sister's  voice  and  enunciation, 
she  would  be  perfect,  but  these  she  has  not."*  I 
am,  I  trust,  almost  as  ardent  an  American  as  rny 
friend  Mr.  Carnegie,  although  he  thinks  that  only 
adopted  citizens  have  this  emotion  in  full  force. 
Certainly  I  have  little  more  liking  than  he  for  royal 
families  and  hereditary  nobles,  nor  does  it  seem  to 
me  that  even  the  manners  of  the  community  are 
benefited  by  their  presence.  "The  difference  in  voice 
is  not  a  social  difference  between  the  two  countries, 
but  mainly,  no  doubt,  a  partial  modification  of  or- 
gans in  a  new  environment.  In  other  words,  it  is 
something  for  attention  and  education ;  we  have  to 
work  out  our  own  salvation  in  this  respect. 

It  is  altogether  probable  that  there  is  to  be  a  new 
voice  developed  in  America,  as  there  is  already  a 
new  temperament.  It  used  to  be  thought  that  we 
could  never  be  so  strong  or  healthy  as  the  English, 
because  we  were  thinner ;  but  it  is  now  pretty  well 
proved  that  we  needed  only  to  become  acclimated 
and  adapt  ourselves  to  the  new  ways  of  living.  So 
with  the  American  voice ;  it  will  probably  never  be 
a  chest  voice,  like  the  English,  but  it  will  come 
more  from  the  head,  and  when  well  trained  will  be 
an  instrument  capable  of  finer  modulation  and  greater 
expression.  As  the  very  best  American  manners — 

*  "  Triumphant  Democracy,"  p  337. 


1YO  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

such  manners,  for  instance,  as  those  of  the  late 
Mr.  Charles  Dabney,  so  long  our  consul  at  Fayal — 
seem  to  me  finer  than  the  best  English  manners,  so 
the  very  best  American  voices  seem  to  me  better 
than  the  best  English  voices,  being  equally  clear 
and  mellow,  with  more  positive  sweetness  and  far 
more  range  of  expression.  But  such  really  good 
voices  are  rarer  here  than  in  England,  mainly  be- 
cause there  is  not  the'  same  close  attention  given 
to  the  matter  on  this  side  the  Atlantic.  An  Eng- 
lish mother,  in  the  well-bred  classes,  is  as  solicitous 
about  her  daughter's  way  of  speaking  as  about  her 
clothes — perhaps  more  so,  if  we  may  judge  by  re- 
sults. An  American  mother,  under  similar  circum- 
stances, is  apt  to  attend  to  the  clothes,  and  leave  the 
voice  untended.  In  schools,  however,  and  especially 
in  public  schools,  this  matter  is  being  more  and 
more  brought  to  attention.  Remarking,  a  few  years 
since,  in  a  large  family,  how  much  better  the  young- 
est daughter  used  her  voice  than  any  of  her  sisters, 
I  found  with  surprise  that  much  of  the  difference 
was  due  to  the  pains  taken  in  the  public  schools  of 
the  rural  city  where  she  lived — schools  which  she 
alone  had  attended.  If  we  can  once  see  American 
education  achieving  superiority  in  a  point  like  this, 
it  will  be  striking  at  the  very  root  of  the  evil. 


XXXIV. 

SOCIAL    SUPERIORS. 

MR.  BRANDER  MATTHEWS  lately  quoted,  at  a  dis- 
cussion held  in  New  York  as  to  the  working  of 
republican  government,  an  early  statement  by  Low- 
ell, which  seems  to  me  to  contain  a  brief  epitome 
of  the  whole  matter,  and  to  be  too  good  to  forget. 
Lowell  said  (I  quote  from  memory),  "If  it  be  a 
good  thing  for  an  English  duke  that  he  has  no 
social  superior,  I  think  it  can  hardly  be  bad  for  an 
American  farmer."  It  reminded  me  of  a  saying  by 
a  classmate  of  mine,  so  fond  of  England  and  so 
ashamed  of  his  own  country  that  he  used  to  define 
it  as  the  mission  of  the  United  States  "to  vulgarize 
the  whole  world,"  who  yet  resented  being  taken  too 
literally  in  this  remark;  and  would  tell  a  story  of 
the  disgusting  sycophancy  of  middle-class  English- 
men towards  people  of  rank,  contrasting  it  with  the 
perfect  indifference  of  the  average  American  travel- 
ler, unconscious  of  having  a  social  superior  anywhere. 

Cut  there  is  an  aspect  of  this  "social  superior" 
question  so  obvious  that  I  wonder  to  see  so  little 
said  about  it.  Does  it  not  really  form  a  key  to  the 


172  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

whole  question  of  domestic  service  ?  It  often  seems 
to  me  that  the  estimable  ladies  who  are  always  urg- 
ing, and  with  many  good  arguments,  that  young 
girls  thrown  upon  themselves  for  support  should 
choose  house-work  rather  than  the  factory,  miss  the 
most  important  point  in  the  whole  affair.  Those 
who  refuse  house-work  in  this  form  do  it,  not  be- 
cause they  dread  work,  for  they  usually  work  hard- 
er elsewhere ;  nor  because  house-work  seems  to  them 
degrading,  because  they  have  almost  all  helped  their 
mothers  to  do  it,  and  they  probably  expect  to  do  it 
for  themselves  when  they  are  married.  There  is 
nothing  that  the  ladies  who  advise  them  can  say 
about  it  which  has  any  effect  upon  their  minds,  be- 
cause the  main  point  is  so  often  left  untouched. 
The  thing  that  really  influences  them  is  the  dislike 
— which  they  share  with  dukes  and  duchesses — of 
having  social  superiors. 

Say  what  you  please,  they  are  not  made  conscious, 
in  the  life  of  factory  operatives  or  "  sales-ladies,"  of 
having  distinct  social  superiors,  whereas  every  day 
of  domestic  service  seems  to  imply  the  clear  and 
formal  recognition  of  such  a  thing.  The  more  dis- 
tinct this  recognition,  the  less  it  is  liked.  To  be  the 
"  help  "  in  a  farmer's  family,  eating  at  the  family 
table  and  coming  in  at  the  same  door  with  the  rest, 
reduces  this  sense  of  social  inferiority  to  the  small- 
est point,  or  extinguishes  it  altogether.  Nor  is 


SOCIAL    SUPERIORS.  173 

there  much  of  it  in  the  summer  hotel,  where  the  life 
of  the  hired  men  and  girls  is  a  thing  by  itself,  and 
no  sense  of  actual  inferiority  is  pressed  on  them. 
Then  there  are  many  families  where  a  tone  of  kind- 
ly friendliness  prevails,  and  excludes  all  oppressive 
sense  of  social  superiority ;  and  if  all  families  were 
like  this,  there  would  be  much  less  scarcity  of  "liv- 
ing-out girls,"-as  they  like  to  call  themselves.  But 
just  in  proportion  as  distinctions  become  marked 
and  artificial,  the  dislike  to  anything  that  implies 
social  superiority  becomes  greater.  It  is  useless  to 
tell  those  thus  situated  that  labor  is  honorable,  and 
household  labor  especially  so ;  to  say  that  a  good 
servant  ranks  higher  than  a  good  factory  hand,  and 
so  on.  The  ladies  who  say  this  fail  to  convince 
others  because  they  do  not  really  convince  them- 
selves. That  is  the  real  difficulty. 

The  trouble  is  that  these  benevolent  ladies  them- 
selves in  their  secret  souls  regard  that  member  of  a 
poor  family  who  goes  out  to  service  as  occupying  a 
lower  social  plane  than  her  sister  who  tends  in  a 
store  or  works  in  a  shoe  factory.  It  is  the  same 
with  men.  No  novelist  could  ever  put  such  a 
brand  upon  the  whole  class  of  farmers  or  mechanics 
as  Thackeray  puts  upon  his  footmen.  I  remember 
an  occasion,  many  years  ago,  when  a  whole  suburban 

village  was  thrown  into  confusion  because  Mr. 's 

man-servant  was  allowed  to  buy  a  ticket  and  dance 


174  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

at  a  village  ball,  although  the  young  farmers  and 
mechanics  were  all  expected  and  even  begged  to 
attend.  "  What  is  the  difference  2"  I  asked.  "  Why, 
of  course,"  said  the  ladies  on  the  committee,  "you 
expect  to  dance  in  the  same  set,  at  a  country  ball, 
with  your  milkman  and  shoemaker,  but  as  to  meet- 
ing on  the  same  terms  Mr.  's  man-servant, 

that  is  a  very  different  thing."  I  never  could  see 
why  it  was  different,  but  long  observation  has  con- 
vinced me  that  it  is  so  regarded.  Now  if  the  very 
ladies  who  give  all  the  good  advice  still  make  this 
distinction,  and  if  they  rank  household  service  as 
socially  inferior  to  the  more  independent  lines  of 
work,  how  can  they  expect  not  to  be  taken  at  their 
word  ?  They  may  talk  never  so  much  about  the 
dignity  of  household  employment,  but  they  do  not 
really  believe  in  it. 

I  have  lately  asked  a  scries  of  ladies,  who  are  ail 
content  with  their  own  social  positions,  whether 
they  would  prefer  to  have  a  son  or  a  brother  marry 
a  young  girl  who  had  been  a  seamstress  or  one  who 
had  been  a  domestic  servant,  and  they  have  always 
said  that  they  should  prefer  the  seamstress.  On 
being  pressed  for  reasons,  some  said  that  they  did 
not  know,  but  that  this  was  the  way  they  felt.  Oth- 
ers said  that  household  service  seemed  "  more  me- 
nial ;"  others,  that  it  would  be  awkward  to  receive  as 
an  equal  one  who  had  opened  the  door  for  you  or 


SOCIAL   SUPERIOKS.  175 

swept  your  room.  Each  of  these  reasons  seemed 
rather  flimsy,  but  not  more  so  than  the  general  feel- 
ing of  which  it  is  a  part.  To  me  it  is  all  unmean- 
ing;  the  only  things  really  important  are  character, 
intelligence,  and  refinement;  and  nothing  can  he 
less  important  than  the  mere  question  what  a  per- 
son's employment  is  or  has  been,  so  it  be  honest. 

"  Who  sweeps  a  room,  as  for  Thy  laws 
Makes  that  and  the  action  fine." 

But  the  point  now  of  interest  is  to  know  what 
the  general  impression  is;  and  so  long  as  the  em- 
ployers themselves  regard  household  service  as  being 
socially  lower  than  working  at  the  needle  or  at  the 
loom,  how  can  they  expect  that  the  persons  most 
concerned  will  fail  to  see  it?  If  we  regard  all  this 
as  a  prejudice,  let  us  go  to  work  to  correct  it.  In 
the  mean  time  we  must  remember  that  those  who 
arc  in  our  employ  are  really  taking  themselves  at 
our  own  valuation,  and  cannot  consistently  be  cen- 
sured. AVhen  your  best  handmaiden  leaves  your 
employ  and  accepts  lower  pay  in  a  "  box  factory  "  or 
at  some  "  straw-works,"  remember  that  she  may  be 
doing  it  for  precisely  the  same  reason  that  Queen 
Victoria  got  herself  declared  "Empress  of  India" 
as  well  as  Queen  of  England  —  in  order  that  she 
might  thenceforth  have  no  social  superior. 


XXXV. 
THE  SECRET  OF  THE  BIRTHDAY. 

IN  a  late  treatise  on  American  literature,  while 
the  year  of  birth  is  carefully  given  for  each  male  au- 
thor, the  same  fact  is  systematically  omitted  in  the 
case  of  women.  If  any  class  of  women  might  be 
supposed  free  from  the  affectation  of  more  youth 
than  belongs  to  them,  it  is  the  sisterhood  of  the 
pen,  inasmuch  as  to  them  the  increase  of  years  usu- 
ally implies  a  more  assured  position  and  a  better 
income.  Yet  on  inquiring  of  a  friend  who  makes 
books  of  reference  professionally,  I  am  assured  that 
literary  women  do  occasionally  show  this  sensitive- 
ness as  to  their  ages ;  and  it  is  also  sometimes  the 
case,  he  adds,  with  literary  men.  In  fact,  he  tells 
me  very  frankly  that  he  docs  not  quite  enjoy  giving 
the  exact  figures  as  to  his  own  age,  or  seeing  them 
in  print. 

Reticence  as  to  years  is  not,  then,  a  monopoly  of 
either  sex  ;  but  it  belongs,  no  doubt,  more  especially 
to  women,  among  whom  the  graces,  and  especially 
the  earlier  graces,  of  life  are  not  only  more  lavishly 
distributed,  but  bring  a  more  delicious  adulation. 


THE    SECRET    OF    THE    BIRTHDAY.  177 

There  is  probably  no  period  in  the  life  of  any  man, 
no  matter  how  successful  or  powerful,  which  is  so 
intoxicating,  and  so  sums  up  all  that  is  fascinating 
in  the  way  of  homage,  as  the  few  years'  reign  of  an 
acknowledged  belle.  When  we  consider  that  the 
man  of  iron,  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  used,  in  his 
devout  Calvinistic  youth,  to  attend  a  certain  church 
in  Boston  simply  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  beauti- 
ful Miss  Emily  Marshall  as  she  went  in  or  out,  we 
have  a  condensed  example  of  the  extraordinary 
power  placed  by  nature  in  the  hands  of  beauty  and 
grace  and  youth.  The  sternest  moralists,  the  sober- 
est philosophers,  are  compelled  to  own  its  sway,  and 
to  place  the  radiance  of  blossoming  womanhood  at 
the  head  of  all  nature's  visible  loveliness : 

"  What  stars  do  spangle  heaven  with  such  beauty 
As  those  two  eyes  become  that  heavenly  face  ?" 

And  as  a  part  of  this  unequalled  charm  resides  in 
the  clement  of  youthfulness,  so  youth  alone  suffices 
for  beauty,  in  a  degree,  and  throws  enchantment 
around  homely  features.  It  is  not  strange,  then, 
that  women  should  cling  to  youth  and  shrink  from 
recognizing  the  fact  of  age,  even  to  the  suppression 
of  the  record  in  the  family  Bible. 

But  it  would  be  wronging  womanhood  to  admit 
this  to  be  the  whole  or  even  the  chief  part  of  the 
story.     Often  in  a  family  of  sisters,  she  who  had 
12 


178  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

her  reign  of  beauty  at  eighteen  gives  place,  after  a 
time,  to  another  who  passed  for  years  unnoticed, 
but  replaces  her  lovelier  sister  at  thirty  or  forty,  and 
thence  holds  her  own  into  old  age.  Shakespeare, 
who  saw  all  things,  did  not  neglect  this  more  pro- 
longed sway  or  Indian  summer  of  womanhood: 

"Beauty  doth  varnish  age,  as  if  new-bora, 
And  give  the  crutch  the  cradle's  infancy." 

Taking  the  world  as  a  whole,  the  remarkable  proofs 
of  the  ascendancy  of  woman  are  the  trophies  of  age, 
not  of  youth.  The  utmost  beauty  leaves  the  Orien- 
tal woman  but  a  petted  toy  in  youth  ;  yet  when  a 
mother  she  has  a  life-long  slave  in  her  son,  and  an 
Eastern  emperor  will  declare  war  or  make  peace  at 
her  bidding.  So  close  was  among  the  Greeks  the 
tie  between  the  mother  and  her  sons — the  father,  as 
Plato  implies  in  his  "  Protagoras,"  very  rarely  inter- 
fering with  them — that  it  held  its  strength  even  into 
advanced  years.  Such  opinions  as  have  been  brought 
forward  by  Diderot  in  French,  and  by  Godwin  in 
English,  impairing  the  feeling  of  filial  reverence 
after  the  son  grows  to  maturity,  would  have  been 
abhorrent  to  the  feelings  of  an  ancient  Greek.  Those 
emotions  took  form  in  their  reverence  for  the  Graia) 
— nymphs  who  were  born  gray-headed — as  did  those 
of  the  Romans  in  the  honor  paid  to  the  Sibyls, 
some  of  whom  at  least  were  old.  Amon<z-  our  Amcr- 


THE    SECRET    OF   THE   BIRTHDAY.  179 

ican  Indians,  Mr.  Lncicn  Can-  finds  that  supremacy 
accorded  to  women  in  age  which  is  denied  them  in 
youth.  Goethe,  exhausting  all  mythology  and  alle- 
gory in  the  second  part  of  "  Faust,"  gives  mysteri- 
ous reverence  to  "  the  Mothers,"  makes  the  Fates 
the  conservators  of  social  order;  while  he,  with 
keen  satire,  modernizes  the  Furies  into  beautiful  and 
treacherous  girls,  "each  of  them  young  and  fair,  a 
wheedling  kitten." 

It  seems  to  me  clear  that  neither  our  literary 
women  nor  any  others  of  their  sex  have  any  need 
to  be  ashamed  of  their  birthdays,  or  to  forego  the 
dignity  which  is  their  rightful  honor  in  age.  In 
nature  the  period  of  blossom  seems  a  time  so  beau- 
tiful that  we  think  nothing  can  ever  equal  it,  until 
we  reach  the  period  of  fruitage;  and  so  it  should 
be  with  human  life.  Madamo  de  Genlis,  after  a 
brilliant  and  stormy  youth,  reread,  when  seventy 
years  old,  all  the  classics  of  Louis  XlV.'s  time,  in 
order  to  preserve  her  literary  style ;  she  died  at 
eighty-four,  and  the  edition  of  her  works  published 
just  before  her  death  comprised  just  eighty-four 
volumes'—one  for  every  year.  It  is  half  a  century 
since  her  death,  and  it  is  said  that  at  least  twenty 
of  her  books  are  still  popular  in  France.  This  is  to 
make  the  fruitage  of  a  life  better  than  the  flower, 
and  so  is  such  a  beautiful  old  age  as  that  of  Lucre- 
tia  Mott  or  Lvdia  Maria  Child.  It  is  the  fashion  to 


180  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

sneer  at  old  women  ;  the  novelists  neglect  them  : 
Howells  hardly  recognizes  their  existence ;  Thack- 
eray makes  them  worldly  and  wicked,  like  old  Lady 
Kew,  or  a  little  oversentimcntal,  like  Madame  de 
Florae ;  Miss  Edge  worth's  Lady  Davenant  in  "  Hel- 
en "  is  perhaps  the  best  example  of  the  class.  In  pic- 
torial art  I  know  of  no  more  impressive  representa- 
tion of  feminine  old  age,  of  the  more  commanding 
sort,  than  an  etching  in  Mrs.  Jameson's  "  Common- 
place Book"  from  a  German  artist,  Stcinle.  Eve,  in 
her  banishment,  prematurely  old  with  care,  sits  lean- 
ing with  stately  poise  against  a  tree  and  stretches 
one  strong  right  arm  to  uphold  Cain,  a  lovely  naked 
child,  upon  a  low  branch.  He  carelessly  drops  an 
apple  into  her  lap,  thus  unconsciously  recalling  the 
sin  that  forfeited  Paradise.  Her  drooping  locks 
are  white,  but  her  noble  eyes  are  undimmcd,  and 
seem  to  look  beyond  his  sin,  or  hers,  into  some 
world  where  all  isolated  transgressions  are  merged 
in  eternal  life  and  disappear.  In  her  other  hand 
she  holds  a  spindle,  as  if  ready  to  weave  the  desti- 
nies of  that  world  unseen.  It  is  a  group  that  Will- 
iam Blake  might  have  drawn — and  one  in  whose 
presence  it  seems  a  glory  to  be  old. 


XXXVI. 
THE  NEW  THEORY  OF  LANGUAGE. 

IN  a  late  number  of  Science*  a  new  theory  of  the 
utmost  interest  is  brought  forward  by  one  of  the 
most  eminent  of  American  philologists,  Horatio  Hale. 
It  forms  the  substance  of  an  address  given  at  Buffalo, 
New  York,  in  his  capacity  as  vice-president  of  the 
anthropological  section  of  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  He  thinks  that  it 
solves  one  of  the  scientific  questions  that  seemed 
most  hopeless;  and  the  solution  has  peculiar  inter- 
est as  showing  how  the  most  important  results  may 
follow  from  things  usually  held  trifling — in  this  case, 
from  the  most  unintelligible  chatter  of  children. 
For  many  readers  his  conclusions  will  have  especial 
interest  through  this  fact,  that  the  earliest  clew  to 
this  remarkable  discovery — if  such  it  be — was  given 
by  the  observations  of  a  mother  in  her  nursery. 

No  puzzle  outstanding  in  science  has  been  greater 
than  how  to  account  for  the  variety  of  languages 
among  men.  It  is  easy  enough  to  explain  the  di- 

*  August  27,  1886. 


182  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

versity  that  exists  among  various  dialects  of  the 
same  stock;  as  that,  taking  the  most  familiar  case, 
between  French,  Italian,  and  Spanish  ;  or,  in  a  wider 
sense,  among  all  the  60  languages  of  the  Aryan  or 
Indo-European  stock,  the  20  of  the  Semitic  family 
(Hebrew,  Chaldaic,  etc.),  the  168  of  the  great  South 
African  stock,  the  35  of  the  Algonkin  (Indian) 
stock,  and  so  on.  These  groups  offer  comparatively 
slight  variations  within  themselves ;  but  the  moment 
we  go  beyond  a  single  stock,  the  several  groups 
seem  to  have  nothing  in  common.  The  parent 
stock  in  the  Aryan  group,  for  instance,  is  absolute- 
ly separated  from  the  Semitic,  that  from  the  Chi- 
nese, and  so  on.  Of  these  last  tsvo  it  was  said  by 
Wilhelm  von  Humboldt — who  was  not  inclined  to 
supernatural  explanations — that  it  was  easier  to  be- 
lieve that  each  came  by  some  direct  communication 
from  Heaven  than  that  either  could  have  been  de- 
veloped out  of  the  other.  And  as  there  are  esti- 
mated to  be  about  200  of  these  utterly  distinct  and 
remote  parent  stocks,  the  difficulty  of  accounting 
for  them  has  hitherto  seemed  almost  insuperable. 
Yet  all  this  while,  Mr.  Hale  thinks,  the  real  solution 
was  one  of  the  simplest  things  in  the  world,  and 
lay  close  at  hand,  namely,  in  the  nursery.  Some 
observations  made  by  a  woman  and  recorded — not, 
unhappily,  at  once,  but  long  after — gave  the  key  to 
the  whole  mystery.  The  solution  is  to  be  found, 


THE  NEW  THEORY  OF  LANGUAGE.     183 

according  to  Mr.  Hale,  in  what  lie  calls  "  the  lan- 
guage-making instinct  of  very  young  children." 

There  were  born  near  Boston  in  1860  twin  boys, 
who  were  peculiarly  devoted  to  each  other.  They 
began  to  talk  at  the  usual  age,  but  the  language 
they  talked  was  not  even  so  near  to  English  as  is 
usual  in  such  cases — in  fact,  it  was  not  English  at 
all.  They  made  up  a  jargon  of  their  own,  and  en- 
tirely refused  to  speak  anything  else.  Their  mother 
could  not  really  understand  it,  but  only  guessed  at 
what  was  essential ;  yet  they  perfectly  understood 
one  another,  so  that  it  was,  for  all  purposes  of  com- 
munication, a  complete  language.  At  last  they 
were  sent  to  school,  where  they  learned  English  as 
a  foreign  tongue,  and  forgot  their  own  prattle,  only 
one  word  of  which,  unluckily,  was  preserved.  The 
matter  was  not  made  public  till  eighteen  years  after- 
wards, when  it  was  described  by  Miss  E.  II.  Watson, 
of  Boston,  in  an  essay  on  the  origin  of  language, 
prefaced  to  her  edition  of  a  work  by  her  father,  the 
late  George  Watson,  on  "  The  Structure  of  Lan- 
guage." Miss  Watson  did  not  herself  observe  the 
children,  but  had  the  facts  afterwards  from  tho 
mother,  and  her  statements  attracted  little  attention. 

It  happened  fortunately,  however,  that  in  the  in- 
terval between  these  facts  and  their  record  a  series 
of  more  exact  observations  was  made  and  published 
by  an  Albany  physician,  Dr.  E.  R.  Iltin.  In  a  peri- 


184  \VOMEX   AND    MEST. 

odical  of  small  circulation,  the  Monthly  Journal  of 
Psychological  Medicine,  he  gave  what  Mr.  Hale  calls 
"a  clear  and  scientific  account"  of  something  more 
of  the  same  kind.  It  was  a  language  contrived  by 
a  little  girl  four  years  and  a  half  old,  in  connection 
with  her  brother  of  three.  "  About  twenty  of  the 
words  arc  given,  most  of  which  are  used  in  several 
allied  acceptations,  as  mea,  meaning  both  cat  and 
furs ;  miff  no-miff  no,  water,  wash,  bath  ;  ban,  soldier, 
music;  odo,  to  send  for,  to  go  out,  to  take  away; 
waia-ioaiar,  black,  darkness,  a  negro.  The  language 
had  its  own  forms  of  construction,  as  in  mea  ivaia- 
waiar, '  dark  furs,'  literally  '  furs  dark,'  when  the  ad- 
jective follows  its  substantive."  Dr.  Hun  says  the 
children  talked  in  this  way  with  the  greatest  rapidi- 
ty and  fluency. 

Further  inquiries  have  shown,  Mr.  Hale  says,  that 
this  phenomenon  is  not  unusual,  and  the  theory  he 
founds  upon  it  is  very  simple.  The  only  question 
is,  indeed,  whether  it  is  not  too  simple.  Suppose, 
he  thinks,  a  family  of  children,  in  whom  the  lan- 
guage-making instinct  is  thus  strong,  to  be  suddenly 
placed  by  some  social  or  physical  catastrophe  in  a 
position  of  entire  isolation,  where  the  parents  pres- 
ently die.  If  the  children  are  very  young,  they  will 
also  die ;  but  if  they  are  old  enough  to  survive — 
which  would  be  particularly  easy  in  a  tropical  coun- 
try— they  will  grow  up  speaking  a  wholly  new  Ian- 


THE  NEW  THEORY  OF  LANGUAGE.     185 

guage,  not  derived  directly  from  any  other.  In  time, 
should  other  wanderers  join  them,  the  language  will 
be  accepted  by  these  also.  The  children  of  the  little 
colony  will  grow  up  hearing  no  other.  In  time  phi- 
lologists will  get  hold  of  it — -by  which  time  it  will 
have  worked  out  a  grammar  and  inflections  of  its 
own — and  they  will  vainly  speculate  whence  it  came. 
There  is  nothing  intrinsically  impossible  in  such  a 
situation ;  and  if  it  be  said  that  it  would  be  one  of 
extreme  rarity,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
world  is  very  large,  and  that  two  hundred  such  in- 
stances would  account  for  all  the  entirely  distinct 
stocks  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Mr.  Hale  points  out,  in  confirmation  of  this  the- 
ory, that  much  the  larger  part  of  these  separate  lin- 
guistic stocks  may  be  traced  to  the  warm  regions  of 
the  globe,  where  such  scattered  households  of  very 
young  children  could  best  be  kept  alive.  Many  of 
them  occur  among  the  American  aborigines,  with 
whom  it  is  a  thing  of  frequent  occurrence  for  a  sin- 
gle family  to  wander  off  from  the  main  tribe  into 
banishment,  or  be  exiled  for  some  offence  against 
the  tribal  law.  Then  there  are  the  wide  island  pop- 
ulations of  the  world,  where  the  isolation  is  more 
complete  than  that  of  sierras  and  prairies.  But,  after 
all,  the  important  facts  may  lie  close  at  hand.  Mr. 
Hale  suggests  a  field  for  scientific  observation  in 
every  nursery.  Nothing  has  as  yet  been  less  re- 


186  .  AVOMEN    AND    MEN. 

duccd  to  careful  investigation  or  statement  than 
the  process  by  which  a  child  learns  to  talk — the 
most  wonderful  mental  feat,  probably,  that  any  of 
us  have  ever  achieved.  If  sucli  important  inferences 
follow,  in  the  judgment  of  philologists,  from  a  few 
stray  observations  made  by  mothers  and  nurses,  how 
probable  it  is  that  there  are  multitudes  of  other  facts 
easily  observable,  but  never  yet  carefully  watched  or 
recorded  ! 


XXXVII. 
TRUST  FUNDS. 

THE  laws  and  the  courts  have  much  to  say  about 
"trust  funds;"  but  is  not  almost  all  the  property 
owned  by  women  really  a  trust  fund,  in  the  sense 
that  they  usually  intrust  it  to  somebody,  without  pre- 
tending, or  seeking,  or  even  desiring  to  know  any- 
thing about  it  for  themselves?  Their  comfort  and 
the  usefulness  of  their  lives,  the  health  and  prosperity 
of  their  children,  may  depend  upon  that  property's 
being  well  cared  for.  If  they  keep  house,  they  feel 
themselves  responsible  for  the  proper  preservation 
of  the  house  as  to  repair  and  drainage  and  all  the 
rest.  If  they  keep  a  dog,  or  even  a  horse,  they  ex- 
ercise some  supervision  over  it,  and  do  not  leave  it 
wholly  to  others.  But  the  money  that  buys  the 
horse  or  dog,  and  supports  the  whole  establishment, 
this  they  leave  absolutely  under  the  control  of  some 
rnan  known  to  them,  or  sometimes  actually  un- 
known. If  he  tells  them  to  buy  a  certain  stock, 
they  buy  it;  if  he  bids  them  sell,  they  sell.  What- 
ever legal  papers  he  brings  them,  they  sign — very 
likely  without  even  reading  them.  And  yet  they 


188  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

are  in  other  respects,  it  may  be,  women  of  charac- 
ter, energy,  and  independence.  In  the  great  majority 
of  cases  tne  male  adviser  is  doubtless  to  be  trusted ; 
in  a  smaller  number  he  is  treacherous  or  incompe- 
tent. Often  he  is  the  husband,  and  that  only  in- 
creases the  completeness  of  the  confidence,  and,  if  he 
is  unfit  for  the  trust,  the  rapidity  of  the  downfall. 
It  is  not  uncommon  to  sec  men  who  have  run  through 
two  fortunes  —  their  own  and  that  of  a  wife.  I 
knew  a  lady,  not  now  living,  who  inherited  $75,000. 
Her  first  husband  reduced  it  to  $25,000;  her  sec- 
ond, to  nothing.  The  amount  is  of  no  consequence ; 
it  is  just  as  easy  to  run  through  a  million  dollars 
as  a  hundred,  if  you  only  begin  to  run. 

The  trouble  is  that  no  virtue,  no  high  aim,  no  de- 
voted affection,  is  a  safeguard  against  this  calamity. 
The  noblest  men  and  the  noblest  women  may  be  its 
victims.  One  of  the  purest  philanthropists  I  ever 
knew  was  an  instance  of  this.  He  was  widely 
known,  had  a  generosity  only  too  unbounded,  and 
an  independent  property,  his  wife  also  possessing 
one  of  her  own.  lie  was  a  trained  lawyer,  though 
not  practising,  and  he  commanded  such  confidence 
that  he  was  repeatedly  made  trustee  or  executor 
under  the  wills  of  others.  At  the  end  of  his  life  it 
was  found  that  he  had  made  no  separation  of  the 
securities  representing  these  trusts  from  his  own. 
Nevertheless  the  trusts  were  all  paid  in  full  from 


TRUST   FUNDS.  189 

his  estate,  but  it  left  nothing;  Iris  own  property  and 
his  wife's  were  almost  wholly  gone,  mostly  wasted 
in  worthless  investments.  He  died  poor,  and  left 
her  dependent  on  charity,  although  both  had  been 
supposed  to  be  rich.  The  moral  is  that  no  wom- 
an's property  is  safe,  even  in  the  hands  of  a  saint, 
unless  he  is  also  careful  and  prudent ;  and  no  woman 
can  ever  form  an  opinion  as  to  a  man's  care  and  pru- 
dence unless  she  herself  cultivates  common-sense,  and 
takes  pains  to  know  something  about  business  affairs. 
This  is  needful  for  a  woman  of  large  property, 
and  still  more  for  one  who  has  but  a  trifle.  If  it 
lies  in  real  estate,  she  should  learn  something  about 
the  values  of  real  estate  and  its  laws.  If  it  lies  in 
stocks  of  any  kind,  she  should  know  what  they  rep- 
resent, and  watch  for  herself  their  rise  and  fall.  It 
is  not  necessary  that  she  should  manage  her  proper- 
ty in  person,  any  more  than  it  is  necessary  that  a 
man  should  build  his  own  house ;  but  as  the  wise 
man  visits  his  house  frequently  while  building,  and 
does  not  leave  all  to  even  his  treasure  of  a  master- 
carpenter,  so  a  woman  at  least  needs  to  know  how 
the  house  of  her  own  fortunes  is  to  be  built  and 
kept  in  order.  Most  fathers  now  recognize  this 
after  a  fashion  in  the  case  of  their  own  daughters; 
but  when  the  daughter  actually  asks  a  question,  it 
is  much  easier  to  reply,  hurriedly,  "Don't  trouble 
your  little  head  about  that,  dear,"  than  to  spare  a 


190  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

moment  to  explain  to  her  how  a  bank  is  carried  on, 
or  a  joint-stock  company  organized.  Years  ago  I 
read  an  admirable  address  by  a  Boston  merchant, 
then  eminent,  in  which  he  strongly  urged  the  train- 
ing of  women  in  business  habits,  and  the  value  to 
a  husband  of  a  wife  who  could  understand  his  af- 
fairs. When  I  reminded  his  daughter  the  other 
day  of  this  address  of  forty  years  ago,  she  said,  with 
regret,  "  I  wish  he  had  given  that  instruction  in  his 
own  family,  but  he  never  did." 

The  mysteries  of  the  Stock  Exchange  may  not  be 
an  essential  study,  but  the  general  principles  which 
govern  investment  and  income  are  within  the  reach 
of  all.  The  commonplaces  of  this  knowledge — as, 
that  something  cannot  usually  be  obtained  for  noth- 
ing— that  a  low  and  certain  income  is  better  than 
one  dangerously  high — that  people  cannot  afford  to 
play  a  game  they  do  not  understand  with  opponents 
who  know  every  move  of  it — that  the  investment  of 
even  a  small  property  should  be  made  in  a  variety 
of  directions,  so  as  not  to  have  all  one's  eggs  in  one 
basket,  as  the  saying  is  —  these  things  are  not  so 
hard  to  learn.  If  those  who  yearn  for  a  tempting 
speculation  could  once  comprehend  that  when  yon 
lend  a  man  $1000  at  exorbitant  interest,  he  can  easily 
pay  you  that  interest  for  a  year  or  two  out  of  your 
own  money,  if  he  can  then  be  allowed  to  abscond 
or  go  into  bankruptcy  with  the  rest  of  it,  then  it 


TRUST    FUNDS.  191 

would  not  be  so  easy  to  allure  women  into  worth- 
less "  Women's  Banks."  The  folly  is  not  confined 
to  women,  as  the  victims  of  Grant  and  Ward  proved ; 
but  probably  those  sufferers  were  more  experienced, 
and  therefore  less  the  subjects  of  pity. 

In  our  public  schools  girls  are,  on  the  whole,  the 
best  mathematicians.  They  know  the  difference 
between  principal  and  interest  in  the  arithmetic- 
book,  and  can  rattle  off  the  problem  on  the  black- 
board very  quickly.  What  they  need  is,  whether 
they  are  supporting  themselves  or  not,  to  be  en- 
couraged to  keep  their  own  accounts,  and  for  that 
purpose  to  have  a  definite  allowance,  and  to  have, 
if  possible,  a  little  money  property  of  their  own,  in 
order  to  acquire  the  habit  of  looking  after  it.  The 
busiest  father  or  husband  has  time  enough  to  an- 
swer a  few  plain  questions,  and  there  are  little  manu- 
als of  business  that  make  the  essentials  much  sim- 
pler things  than  a  mayonnaise -dressing  or  a  new 
chain-stitch.  I  will  not  say  for  girls  what  a  re- 
spectable livery-stable  keeper  once  said  to  me  about 
boys — that  the  first  thing  is  to  teach  them  the  value 
of  a  dollar.  "  That's  what  I  call  the  corner-stone,"  he 
added ;  but  when  one  sees  from  the  high  table-land 
of  middle  life  the  wrecks  of  households  made  by  the 
ignorance  and  over-confidence  of  women,  one  cannot 
help  wishing  that  the  little  property  they  usually 
possess  might  be  less  exclusively  a  "trust  fund." 


XXXVIII. 
A  PLEA  FOR  THE  UNCOMMONPLACE. 

IN  that  mine  of  symbolic  wisdom,  "Alice  in  the 
Loolving-Glass,"  Huinpty  Dumpty  claims  that  he  re- 
ceived a  certain  gift  as  an  "  unbirthday  present." 
When  Alice  asks  an  explanation  of  the  phrase,  he 
points  out  that  an  unbirthday  present  is  given  to 
you  on  the  days  when  it  is  not  your  birthday ;  and 
that  this  is  far  better  than  a  birthday  present,  be- 
cause you  have  but  one  birthday  in  a  year,  and  you 
can  get  a  great  many  more  presents  by  celebrating 
the  other  three  hundred  and  sixty-four  days.  In 
that  "  carnival  of  commonplaccness"  which  is  af- 
forded, as  some  critics  maintain,  by  the  current 
school  of  novels,  it  is  necessary  to  have  such  a  word 
as  "  uncommonplace"  to  express  something  differ- 
ent. 

There  is  much  that  is  thoroughly  admirable  in 
the  present  tendency,  led  by  one  or  two  men  of  pos- 
itive genius,  to  elevate  the  commonplace  into  ab- 
sorbing interest  —  to  show  the  struggles,  the  emo- 
tions, the  complications,  not  only  of  the  daily  life 
around  us,  but  of  the  average  and  mediocre  exam- 


A    PLEA    FOR   THE    UNCOMMONPLACE.          193 

pics  of  that  life.  It  enriches  existence  to  do  this; 
it  makes  us  all  look  on  humanity  with  a  kindlier 
eye.  If  a  man  has  the  genius  to  do  it  in  literary  art, 
he  is  a  benefactor.  The  error  begins  when  he  or  his 
admirers  begin  to  decry  or  disparage  all  other  forms 
of  literary  creation.  The  merit  of  discovering  the 
obscure  is  almost  cancelled  and  neutralized  when 
the  discoverer  goes  on  to  say  that  henceforth  noth- 
ing but  the  obscure  can  have  any  value.  I  knew  a 
botanist  who  discovered  two  undescribed  and  al- 
most invisible  species  of  plants  on  Cambridge  Com- 
mon, Massachusetts.  It  was  a  boon  to  science,  no 
doubt;  but  would  it  have  been  a  boon  if  he  had 
induced  all  cultivators  to  annihilate  their  green- 
houses, root  up  their  orchids,  and  spend  the  rest  of 
their  lives  poring  with  spectacles  among  the  scant 
grasses  of  that  not  very  luxuriant  enclosure  where 
lie  found  his  fame? 

"  The  novel  of  pure  character,"  says  Mr.  Gosse,  in 
the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  "is  the  novel  of  the  future. 
The  after- ages  will  wonder  that  we  preferred  our 
assassins  and  our  bigamists  to  the  '  Lady  of  the 
Aroostook,'  just  as  we  ourselves  wonder  that  an 
age  which  had  Colonel  Newcome  and  Becky  Sharp 
before  its  eyes  could  waste  its  time  on  the  false, 
crude,  high-flown  romanticism  of  the  first  Lord 
Lytton  and  his  idealistic  waxworks."  There  is  al- 
ways something  very  impressive  in  the  way  these 
13 


194  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

young  poets  deal  with  "  after-ages ;"  and  it  might 
be  pointed  out  that  Becky  Sharp  was  practically  a 
bigamist  and  probably  an  assassin  ;  and  why,  more- 
over, select  for  condemnation  a  novelist  who  would 
have  been  meretricious  even  had  he  been  a  realist? 
The  real  question  is  whether  there  is  only  one  kind 
of  excellence.  Because  Miss  Austen  is  good,  is 
Scott  without  value  ?  It  being  conceded  that  Becky 
Sharp  is  worth  drawing,  is  Dorothea  worthless? 

The  error  lies,  like  most  errors,  in  narrowness. 
Non  constat,  it  does  not  follow,  that  there  can  be 
no  faithful  drawing  except  of  commonplace  things. 
That  done,  why  not  go  a  step  farther  and  draw  the 
uncommonplace?  Because  any  well-trained  French 
artist  at  Barbizon  can  go  out  and  paint  a  peasant, 
does  it  follow  that  Millet's  art  is  valueless  when  he 
draws  that  peasant  at  a  moment  when  the  Angelus 
touches  his  quiet  soul,  and  makes  him  for  a  moment 
a  sentient  part  of  the  great  anthem  of  the  universe; 
or  when  in  sowing  the  seed  he  becomes  a  symbol  of 
the  grandeur  and  glory  of  all  creative  and  beneficent 
power  ?  Great  is  the  little  ;  but  why  not  go  a  step 
farther,  and  say,  "Greater  is  the  great?"  An  artist 
is  commissioned  to  unlock  for  us  all  the  mysteries 
of  the  human  soul.  Is  Silas  Lapham  everything, 
and  Arthur  Dimrnesdale  nothing? 

"  The  sincere  observer  of  man,"  Mr.  Howells  says 
in  "Their  Wedding  Journey,"  "will  not  desire  to 


A   PLEA   FOR   TI1E    UNCOMMONPLACE.         195 

look  upon  his  heroic  or  occasional  phases,  but  will 
seek  him  in  his  habitual  moods  of  vacancy  and  tire- 
someness." This  simply  illustrates  Coleridge's  re- 
mark that  we  may  safely  take  every  man's  opinion  of 
the  value  of  that  which  he  knows,  but  should  distrust 
his  opinion  as.  to  the  worthlessness  of  that  which  he 
does  not  know.  The  point  asserted  is  valuable;  the 
point  denied  implies  narrowness  in  the  denier.  Grant 
that  the  sincere  observer  of  man  will  seek  him  in 
his  tamest  moods;  why  should  sincere  observation 
not  follow  him  also  into  his  heroic  or  occasional 
phases?  Admit  that  a  young  man  of  twenty-one  is 
worth  painting  as  he  lies  in  a  hammock  and  smokes 
a  cigarette  ;  that  is  not  the  question.  The  question 
is  whether  he  is  utterly  worthless  as  an  object  of 
art  when  he  rides  to  certain  death  in  a  cavalry 
charge.  Is  he  not  then  also  "real?"  This  is  the 
whole  point  at  issue  between  Mr.  IIowclls  and  what 
he  calls  "  the  childish  demands  "  of  his  contempo- 
rary critics. 

If  it  be  said  that  it  is  because  the  uncommonplace 
demands  too  much  skill  that  authors  avoid  it,  that 
is  a  legitimate  excuse.  Only  let  this  be  called,  as  it 
is,  a  confession  of  weakness,  not  a  claim  of  strength. 
The  trouble  is  that  by  yielding  to  this  weakness  we 
confirm  it,  so  that  there  comes  to  be  a  distrust  of 
everything  which  does  not  lie  close  on  every  side  of 
us.  When  Mr.  Pickwick  explains  to  Mr.  Peter  Mag- 


196  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

nus  that  he  likes  Sam  Wcller  because  he  thinks  him 
rather  original,  Mr.  Magnus  doubtingly  replies  that 
for  himself  he  doesn't  like  anything  original — 
doesn't  see  the  necessity  for  it.  The  public  is  al- 
ways ready  enough  to  doubt  the  necessity  for  it, 
and  almost  to  resent  the  introduction  of  any  com- 
bination which  is  not  to  be  found  at  every  street 
corner.  A  friend  of  mine  spent  a  summer  in  a 
large  old  house  in  a  seaport  town,  where  he  had 
lived  for  weeks  before  discovering  that  a  closed 
door  opposite  his  chamber  door  led  to  a  concealed 
stairway  which  wound  from  the  basement  to  the 
attic,  and  was  now  unused.  It  was  a  relic  of  the 
old  period  of  smuggling  and  privateering  for  which 
that  town  had  once  been  famous;  but  it  so  haunt- 
ed my  friend's  imagination  that  he  wrote  a  romance 
about  it.  The  critics  all  agreed  that  there  were 
some  good  things  about  the  story,  but  that  the  de- 
vice of  a  secret  stairway — the  thing  which  really 
suggested  the  whole  book — was  wholly  far-fetched 
and  unreasonable.  I  suppose  that  whosoever  vent- 
ures on  the  uncommonplace  must  say  to  himself  in 
advance,  as  the  Duke  of  Wellington  is  reported  to 
have  said  when  meditating  the  publication  of  his 
memoirs,  "  I  should  like  to  speak  the  truth,  but  if 
I  do  I  shall  be  torn  in  pieces."  The  question  is, 
whether  it  is  not  worth  the  risk. 


XXXIX. 
CHILDREN  ON  A  FARM. 

No  doubt  the  primary  and  essential  use  of  barns 
is  for  children  to  play  in ;  and  we  might  go  still 
farther  and  say  that  one  chief  use  of  farms  is  as 
out-door  nurseries  and  school-rooms  for  the  same 
little  people.  The  farm  in  question  must  of  course 
be  one  where  the  air  is  good,  the  drainage  sufficient, 
and,  above  all,  the  farmer  good-natured.  He  must 
be  generous  about  his  barn,  not  particular  about 
his  hay-loft,  tolerant  as  to  hen-roosts  and  raspberry- 
bushes,  but  secluded  and  reserved  as  to  the  disposal 
of  pitchforks  and  hay-cutters.  The  farmer's  wife 
also  needs  to  be  of  a  very  magnanimous  nature,  not 
merely  as  to  large  appetites  and  soiled  feet — for 
these,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  she  has  always  with  her 
— but  as  to  the  armfuls  of  fragrant  rubbish  that 
the  children  bring  in  with  them  from  the  fields  and 
forget  to  clear  away  again,  or  the  tree-frogs  which 
are  placed  under  tumblers  for  a  time  and  then  ac- 
cidentally let  loose  in  the  parlor.  If  caterpillars' 
nests  are  unacceptable  in  the  apple-trees,  they  are 
still  less  welcome  in  the  sitting-room  ;  and  after  the 


198  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

farmer  has  laboriously  mowed  down  a  too  exuber- 
ant crop  of  white-weed,  it  is  asking  a  good  deal  of 
his  wife  when  she  is  called  upon  to  supply  her  best 
pitcher  for  a  bouquet  of  it  under  the  name  of  ox- 
eye  daisy.  But  with  a  fanner  of  untiring  benignity, 
wedded  to  a  spouse  of  inexhaustible  patience,  what 
place  is  so  blissful  or  healthful  to  children  as  a  farm? 
It  gives  a  sphere  so  unbounded  for  that  delicious 
and  laborious  idleness  which  children  call  pleasure, 
there  is  so  much  to  do  and  there  arc  such  long  sum- 
mer days  to  do  it  in,  that  one  pities  at  this  season 
even  the  most  petted  children  who  arc  anywhere 
else.  Fancy  them  driving  about,  exquisitely  dressed, 
with  mamma  in  her  basket-wagon  at  Newport,  when 
they  might  be  riding  home  on  the  loaded  hay-cart, 
or  assisting  to  harness  old  Dobbin  for  a  drive  into 
some  secluded  wood-road,  scented  with  sweet-ferns 
and  haunted  by  the  wood-thrush  !  Or  the  children 
on  the  farm,  grown  bolder,  stand  by  the  farmer's 
side  as  he  drives  over  the  dry  and  slippery  grass 
upon  his  stone-drag — a  sort  of  summer  toboggan, 
with  nothing  but  a  board  between  the  rider  and  the 
uneven  surface  of  Mother  Earth.  Arrived  at  the 
spring,  perhaps,  the  child  sees  the  farmer  slowly  fill 
the  cask  with  water,  and  then  drive  the  drag  to  the 
farther  field,  the  child  now  walking  by  his  side,  ex- 
pectant of  the  return  trip.  Then  there  are  the  eggs 
to  be  looked  for ;  not,  indeed,  as  formerly,  in  the 


CHILDREN    ON    A   FARM.  199 

"  stolen  nests "  of  the  great  barn  chamber,  but  at 
least  in  the  various  odd  nooks  and  cubby-houses 
where  the  brooding  hens  are  encouraged  to  estab- 
lish their  strongholds,  in  the  more  methodical  organ- 
ization of  modern  days. 

Then  there  are  the  hens  themselves  to  be  fed — 
thirty  or  forty  chickens  clucking  and  clambering  at 
once  over  the  feet  of  the  little  people  who  sit  be- 
neath the  shade  of  the  raspberry-bushes  and  dole 
out  the  food  as  parsimoniously  as  possible,  that  it 
may  last  the  longer.  Such  a  peering  of  eager  eyes 
and  protruding  of  timid  beaks,  drawn  back  and 
thrust  forward  again  a  dozen  times  before  actual 
contact  with  the  children's  fingers,  while  bolder 
hens  meanwhile  advance  unseen  and  steal  the  whole 
bit  of  bread  from  the  lap.  Then  all  the  chickens 
run  away  in  a  fluttering  mob,  pursuing  the  success- 
ful thief — feathered  things  of  all  sizes,  all  breeds, 
all  gradations  of  awkwardness.  Why  is  it  that 
every  growing  animal,  even  the  human,  must  pass 
through  its  awkward  age?  Nothing  is  prettier  than 
a  little  downy  chicken  ;  nothing  more  gauche  and 
gaunt  than  the  same  thing  when  a  little  older — a 
mere  loose  bundle  of  bones  and  beak  and  long  legs 
and  livid  flesh,  with  one  or  two  ludicrously  large 
wing-feathers  fastened  uselessly  on,  as  if  with  pack- 
thread. Yet  each  of  these  to  the  children  is 
"  sweet,"  or  "  lovely,"  or  "  cunning." 


200  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

And  to  healthy-minded  and  observing  children 
all  flowers,  like  all  chickens,  are  dear.  Mere  quan- 
tity is  fascinating;  the  little  harvesters  are  insati- 
able; to  them  "just  a  few"  means  every  blossom 
accessible  in  the  field.  They  are  such  keen  observ- 
ers too — sharper  than  a  trained  botanist  to  detect 
a  difference  of  shade  or  a  species  hitherto  unseen. 
It  is  astonishing  how  easily  they  learn  the  hard 
names,  even  ;  and  the  little  boy  at  Plymouth,  Massa- 
chusetts, who  explained  to  his  brother  that  an  idiot 
was  a  man  who  did  not  know  anything — did  not 
even  "know  an  arbor-vitae  from  a  pine" — seems  a 
•wholly  reasonable  and  credible  phenomenon.  What 
schools  Nature  provides  for  children,  if  we  only  give 
her  a  chance — perpetual  object  -lessons  on  every 
side !  She  knows,  moreover,  better  than  we  how 
to  reach  their  hearts  through  their  appetites.  Con- 
sider how  she  trains  them  through  the  summer  in 
the  science  of  berries,  with  a  sweet  flavor  at  each 
step  of  the  lesson.  All  the  regular  succession  of  the 
season — "low-bush  blueberries  and  low-bush  huckle- 
berries, and  high-bush  blueberries  and  high-bush 
huckleberries,  and  low-bush  blackberries  and  high- 
bush  blackberries  and  cranberries" — the  children 
are  only  too  happy  to  pick  steadily  through  them 
all,  to  say  nothing  of  the  garden's  yield  of  straw- 
berries, with  its  cherries  and  currants.  Time  would 
fail  to  tell  of  the  cows  and  the  sheep  and  the  pigs; 


CHILDREN    OX    A   FARM.  201 

then  there  is  a  song-sparrow's  nest  in  the  potato 
hill  which  requires  a  great  deal  of  watching,  and 
there  is  a  paradise  of  swings  in  the  barn.  Every- 
thing that  children  can  do  on  a  farm  is  wholesome 
and  picturesque  at  the  same  time.  I  remember  that 
amid  all  the  beauty  of  rural  Normandy — far  more 
invariably  and  inevitably  beautiful  than  rural  Eng- 
land— nothing  was  quite  so  pretty  as  to  see  my  fail- 
hostess  and  her  happy  children  going  about  in  the 
gray  twilight,  as  the  final  ceremony,  to  collect  the 
young  pet  rabbits  beneath  thc*moss-grown  walls,  and 
put  them  away  in  their  hutches,  lest  the  owls  should 
sweep  down  upon  them  after  dark  from  the  ivied 
church -tower  above  —  a  tower  five  centuries  old. 
]>ut  the  essential  combination  on  the  farm  is  of 
child  life  and  animal  life;  and  whether  this  takes 
place  in  old  Normandy  or  young  America,  it  is 
equally  attractive. 


XL. 
WHO  SHALL  FIX  THE  VALUE? 

IN  looking  over  various  letters  from  women  who 
seek  employment,  and  especially  literary  employ- 
ment, I  find  most  of  them  to  be  tinged  with  this 
delusion,  that  those  who  produce  anything  for  the 
market  have  the  right  to  require  somebody  to  take 
it,  and  at  a  price  to  be  fixed  by  the  maker.  It 
would,  no  doubt,  be  very  convenient  to  many  of  us 
if  this  were  true — if  somebody  were  provided  whose 
clear  duty  it  was  to  take  the  potatoes  we  raise,  or 
the  poems  we  write,  at  whatever  price  we  set  upon 
them.  We  could  soon  become  rich  by  this  process, 
like  a  certain  tradesman  of  whom  the  story  us'ed  to 
be  told  that  he  would  go  into  his  shop  and  make 
ten  thousand  dollars  before  breakfast  by  simply 
marking  up  the  prices  of  all  his  goods.  The  ques- 
tion still  remained  whether  this  would  increase  their 
value  when  it  came  to  the  actual  sale ;  and  so  it  is 
plain  that  young  people  may  go  on  thinking  better 
and  better  of  their  own  literary  talents,  and  yet  it 
will  not  help  them  one  step  towards  success  unless 
the  public  takes  a  similar  view.  What  good  does 


AVHO   SHALL   FIX   THE    VALUE?  203 

it  do,  although  your  poetry  seems  to  you  better  than 
Longfellow's  and  your  prose  than  Ilolmcs's,  so  long 
as  the  community — or  the  editor,  who  is  merely  the 
purveyor  or  steward  for  the  community — cannot  be 
led  to  the  same  opinion  ?  You  can  cherish  your 
genius  in  silence  as  much  as  you  please ;  yon  can 
be  content  with  the  applause  of  your  cousins  and 
your  pastor;  you  can  publish  your  works  at  your 
own  expense,  and  wait  for  posterity  to  applaud. 
Any  of  these  things  you  can  do,  as  many  have  done 
before  you ;  but  if  you  wish  for  a  success  more 
stimulating  or  more  lucrative  than  this,  you  must 
comply  with  the  conditions  of  success :  you  must 
find  out  what  the  public  wants,  and  then  supply  it ; 
you  must  let  others,  and  not  yourself,  determine  the 
value  of  your  goods. 

In  the  days  when  the  blind  Homer  recited  his 
lays,  or  in  the  mediaeval  times  when  bards  sang 
from  door  to  door,  literature  could  hardly  be  said 
to  be  on  a  business  foundation ;  but  now,  for  good 
or  for  evil,  it  is  established  on  that  basis,  and  so  far 
as  publication  is  concerned  the  laws  of  business 
must  be  accepted.  A  shoemaker  does  not  make 
a  pair  of  shoes  and  bring  them  to  your  door,  and 
claim  that  it  is  your  duty  to  buy  them  at  his  own 
price,  whether  you  like  them  or  not.  It  is  true  that 
book -peddlers  and  travelling  basket  -  women  come 
pretty  near  to  taking  this  attitude,  bat  we  all  feel 


204  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

justified  in  resisting  it.  The  young  person  who 
writes  stories  or  wishes  to  write  fashionable  corre- 
spondence constantly  maintains  this  position.  These 
applicants  can  always  furnish  unanswerable  reasons 
why  it  is  desirable  that  their  wares  should  be  pur- 
chased:  they  can  often  say  with  truth  that  they 
are  poor  ,•  that  they  live  in  a  remote  village,  and 
would  like  to  see  more  of  the  world ;  that  they  have 
a  younger  brother  or  sister  to  educate  ;  and  that 
they  cannot  see  that  what  they  write  is  not  just  as 
good  as  a  great  deal  which  is  published  and  praised. 
They  agree  in  laying  the  whole  blame  upon  the  edi- 
tor or  the  publisher.  He  is  narrow,  he  is  selfish,  ho 
is  governed  by  the  smallest  of  small  cliques.  How 
can  he  have  any  honorable  or  justifiable  motive  for 
declining  compositions  of  which  sister  Jane  and  our 
excellent  neighbor  have  thought  so  well  ?  "I  always 
suspected,"  said  to  me  once  the  husband  of  a  lady 
whose  book  had  just  been  refused  publication  by 
a  well-known  house  —  "I  always  suspected  that 

Mr. was  a  snob,  but  now  I  am  sure  of  it." 

The  present  writer  has  seen  a  good  deal  of  the 
literary  trade  in  all  its  aspects ;  and  so  far  as  he  has 
seen,  there  is  no  business  more  free  from  favoritism. 
The  mere  fact  that  it  is  business  and  not  pleasure 
puts  it  on  a  real  basis  in  this  respect.  Every  pub- 
lisher, as  such,  would  rather  print  a  successful  book 
by  his  worst  enemy  than  an  unsuccessful  one  by  his 


WIIO    SHALL   FIX   THE    VALUE  ?  205 

dearest  friend.  It  is  the  same  with  the  editor  of 
magazine  or  newspaper.  The  one  question  for  him 
to  determine  is  whether  the  book  or  article  really 
promises  to  be  profitable,  and  as  to  this  he  must 
rely  on  his  own  judgment,  for  he  has  nothing  else 
to  rely  upon.  This  judgment  is  very  imperfect, 
and  he  knows  the  fact  too  well ;  but  if  he  cannot 
trust  himself,  he  can  still  less  trust  the  author  or 
the  author's  friends.  Grant  that  these  warm  advo- 
cates know  best  the  intrinsic  worth  of  the  article 
offered ;  they  do  not  know  the  demands  of  the  pub- 
lic, which  is  what  he  has  to  consider.  There  is  not 
an  editor  in  the  world  who  accepts  contributions 
with  reference  to  his  private  taste  only.  "  If  I  were 
to  edit  this  periodical  merely  to  suit  you  and  me," 
said  a  former  editor  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly  to  a 
friend,  "  it  would  be  bankrupt  in  three  months." 
Even  a  cook  must  season  her  food  to  suit  the  taste 
of  the  family,  not  her  own  ;  they  do  not  necessarily 
like  garlic  because  she  does.  Every  good  periodi- 
cal ends  by  influencing  the  public  taste ;  but  it  must 
begin  by  conforming  to  it,  at  least  sufficiently  to  get 
readers. 

Formerly,  when  literature  was  less  widely  spread 
than  now,  young  authors  were  apt  to  err  on  the 
side  of  excessive  humility ;  it  was  hard  for  them  to 
convince  themselves  that  anything  they  wrote  was 
worthy  the  dignity  of  print.  No  doubt  there  are 


200  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

still  man)7  such  instances,  but  the  more  common  at- 
titude of  mind  among  aspirants  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  assumption  that  what  they  write  is  already  good 
enough,  and  that  the  world  owes  them  a  publisher. 
Of  course  the  blunders  often  made  on  the  editorial 
side  will  play  into  their  hands  and  help  to  strengthen 
this  delusion.  "Do  I  not  write  as  well  as  that? 
Can  anything  of  mine  be  worse  than  this?'1'1  They 
forget  that  while  an  editor  cannot  be  infallible,  he 
must  behave  as  if  he  were  so;  and  must  be  practi- 
cally omnipotent,  at  any  rate,  within  his  domain. 
Rightly  or  wrongly,  he  must  make  the  decision,  not 
you  or  I ;  he  must  set  the  valuation.  Our  wares 
are  worth  only  what  he  can  afford  to  give  for  them 
— he  or  his  competitors.  If  he  has  no  need  for 
them,  we  must  find  some  way  to  make  them  what 
he  will  need.  Or  if  that  fails,  we  must  establish 
what  was  once  suggested  by  Edward  Everett  Hale — 
a  periodical  to  be  called  "  The  Unfortunates'  Maga- 
zine," to  contain  all  rejected  contributions,  all  unap- 
preciated courses  of  lectures,  and  in  general  all  pro- 
ductions which  need  a  public  more  than  that  public 
apparently  needs  them. 


XLI. 
A  WOMAN'S  ENTERPRISE. 

I  HAD  a  call  the  other  day  from  a  lady  below 
middle-age  who  wished  to  consult  me  about  some 
business  arrangements  that  had  become  necessary 
for  her.  Instead  of  having  become  entangled  in 
financial  difficulties — which  is,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
the  condition  of  most  of  those  of  her  sex  who  come 
to  me  for  such  consultations — she  was  embarrassed 
by  too  much  success.  She  was,  it  appeared,  a  mar- 
vied  woman  from  some  interior  town  in  New  Eng- 
land, who  had  inherited  from  her  father  several 
pieces  of  property,  a  small  woollen  mill  being  among 
them.  The  property  included  another  mill  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind,  and  of  this  her  husband  took  charge; 
and  they  were  at  first  inclined  to  sell  the  woollen 
mill.  It  proved,  however,  to  be  an  unfavorable  time 
for  this;  and  while  the  matter  was  pending,  she 
took  the  entire  charge  of  the  mill  and  carried  it  on. 
Becoming  interested  in  it,  she  made  improvements 
and  tried  experiments,  the  result  of  which  was  that 
she  had  now  made  blankets  of  such  a  quality  that 
she  had  been  offered  contracts  which  would  keep 


208  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

the  mill  running  day  and  night  for  a  year.  But  for 
this  there  would  be  absolutely  required  certain  ex- 
penditures in  the  way  of  machinery,  buildings,  etc., 
and  her  object  was  to  ask  advice  as  to  the  best  way 
of  raising  the  necessary  money  for  this  purpose. 
She  had  been  advised  to  form  a  joint-stock  company, 
and  yet  felt  a  natural  dislike  to  having  the  enter- 
prise pass  into  other  hands,  after  carrying  it  thus 
far  herself.  She  ended  by  showing  me  a  sample  of 
the  blankets,  which  I  could  only  regard  with  inex- 
perienced amazement,  having  never  seen  anything 
of  the  kind  so  thick,  soft,  and  luxurious.  I  could 
hardly  wonder  that  they  were  worth,  as  she  claimed, 
fifty  dollars  a  pair. 

Having  neither  money  to  invest  nor  practical 
knowledge  of  the  woollen  manufacture,  I  could  only 
give  her  letters  of  introduction  to  three  men  of 
high  standing  in  different  branches  of  that  business. 
From  two  of  these  I  have  since  heard;  and  they 
were  apparently  even  more  surprised  than  I  was, 
because  they  were  better  acquainted  with  the  sub- 
ject. One  of  them  writes  thus  : 

"  Mrs. called  on  me  to-day,  and  I  am  very 

glad  you  introduced  her.  She  is  not  only  a  bright 
woman  but  an  exceptional  manufacturer,  and  I  shall 
try  to  help  her.  She  brought  a  specimen  of  her 
blankets,  and  I  showed  them  to  the  wool-buyer  of 
the Mills,  who  happened  to  be  in  my  office  at 


A    WOMAN'S   ENTERPRISE.  209 

the  time.  He  thought  they  must  have  been  made 
by  the  Mission  Mills  of  California,  which  make  the 
best  blankets  in  the  country.  It  is  those  blankets 
she  set  herself  to  beat,  if  possible.  He  was  genu- 
inely surprised." 

My  other  correspondent  sent  me  word  that  nei- 
ther of  his  mills — he  being  treasurer  of  several — 
had  attained  to  producing  such  a  quality  of  blankets 
as  these,  or  to  obtaining  a  price  so  high  as  these 
might  fairly  command.  He  also  said  that  it  had 
become  known  in  the  trade  that  there  was  one  mill 
in  New  England  which  produced  goods  of  this  high 
grade,  all  sold  by  one  house,  and  not  generally  acces- 
sible, and  that  these  were  apparently  the  very  ones. 
He  gave  the  lady  a  letter  to  a  capitalist,  and  was 
quite  confident  that  she  would  obtain  the  funds  need- 
ed to  enlarge  her  establishment  and  fulfil  her  proposed 
contracts.  I  quote  the  opinions  of  these  gentlemen 
because  they  are  experts,  and  not  easily  to  be  misled 
as  to  the  quality  of  goods,  or  to  be  carried  away  by 
sympathy.  Their  verdict  may  be  taken  as  establish- 
ing the  fact  that  a  woman  has  succeeded  in  taking 
the  lead  of  all  others  in  the  Eastern  States  in  a 
most  difficult  branch  of  manufacture,  and  this  by 
her  own  energies. 

It  is  easy  to  say  that  a  woman  thus  successful 
must  be  a  very  exceptional  woman.  No  doubt ; 
just  as  all  great  inventors,  such  as  Bell  or  Edison, 
14 


210  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

arc  very  exceptional  men.  It  is  quite  probable  that 
she  may  have  inherited  from  her  father,  who  pre- 
ceded her  in  the  mill,  some  special  talent  for  ma- 
chinery. It  is  often  so  with  men,  since  talent  is 
often  hereditary  and  even  cumulative,  what  is  mere 
taste  in  a  father  sometimes  becoming  a  distinct 
gift  in  the  son,  and  being  called  genius  in  the  grand- 
son. But  talent  or  even  genius  alone  makes  a  mere 
amateur ;  she  had  also  the  courage  to  plan  and  the 
will  to  carry  out,  and  with  such  results  as  we  have 
seen.  She  expressly  told  me  that  it  had  cost  her  a 
good  deal  of  labor,  and  that  she  habitually  went  to 
the  mill  at  6  A.M.,  and  knew  all  that  was  going  on 
there  every  day.  Her  husband,  as  has  been  said, 
was  occupied  with  his  own  share  of  business,  and 
left  hers  undisturbed.  Her  success  shows  not  mere- 
ly the  ability  of  a  woman  to  plan  and  execute,  but 
the  readiness  of  practical  men  to  co-operate  with 
such  a  woman  after  she  has  once  proved  her  cre- 
dentials. She  said  that  she  had  found  no  trouble 
in  this  respect,  and  that  the  banks  in  her  region 
had  been  as  willing  to  accommodate  her  as  if  she 
were  a  man. 

Such  an  example  does  not  prove  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  all  women  to  undertake  business  enter- 
prises, any  more  than  it  is  the  duty  of  all  men  to 
paint  pictures  or  open  retail  shops.  There  must 
be  a  proper  consideration  of  special  talents.  In 


A    WOMAN'S    ENTERPRISE.  211 

this  case,  it  appears,  my  visitor  had  tested  herself 
very  carefully  as  she  went  along,  had  taken  up  the 
undertaking  as  a  temporary  matter  only,  and  had 
been  carried  on  by  the  interest  with  which  it  in- 
spired her,  and  by  her  own  evident  adaptation  to 
the  work.  The  use  of  her  example  is  not  in  its 
being  followed  implicitly  or  foolishly,  but  in  the 
help  it  gives  to  all  women  who  dare.  When  Mar- 
garet Fuller,  in  answer  to  a  question  from  one  who 
wished  to  set  limits  to  the  sphere  of  women,  an- 
swered, "Let  them  be  sea-captains,  if  you  will,"  she 
did  not  foresee  that  Captain  Betsey  Miller,  of  the 
bark  Cleotus,  would  erelong  be  doing  the  very  thing 
which  she  had  selected  at  random  as  an  extreme  in- 
stance. One  of  the  very  functions  which  have  been 
oftenest  named  as  beyond  the  natural  gift  of  wom- 
an has  been  the  superintendence  of  a  large  manu- 
facturing establishment,  involving  as  it  docs  three 
separate  faculties  —  a  knowledge  of  machinery,  a 
business  aptitude,  and  the  capacity  to  control  men. 
Yet  here  these  three  qualities  have  been  combined, 
and  have  been  tested  by  success.  The  result  should 
surely  encourage  every  other  woman  who  hesitates 
before  some  similar  opportunity.  One  such  victory 
does  not  prove  that  every  other  success  is  certain, 
but  shows  that  it  need  not  be  set  aside  as  impossi- 
ble merely  because  it  is  unusual. 


XLII. 
CITY  AND  COUNTRY  LIVING. 

THE  newspapers  are  circulating  a  curious  state- 
ment by  Mr.  Grant  Allen — who  is  understood  to  be 
a  Canadian  by  birth  and  an  Englishman  by  resi- 
dence— to  the  effect  that  Americans  do  not  like 
country  life,  and  that  those  who  are  able  to  do  so 
flee  from  the  rural  regions  as  if  there  were  a  pesti- 
lence there.  This  is  a  curious  caricature  of  the  real 
facts — almost  as  curious  as  when  the  same  writer 
finds  something  melancholy  in  the  dandelions  and 
violets,  the  asters  and  golden-rod,  along  our  road- 
sides, and  condemns  them  all  as  "  weeds."  He  evi- 
dently has  not  tried,  with  Lowell,  to  "win  the  se- 
cret of  a  weed's  plain  heart,"  and  to  him  probably 
the  gorsc  and  heather  of  Scotland  or  the  stately 
English  foxglove  would  be  "  nothing  but  weeds." 

The  mistake  he  makes  is  in  regarding  this  ten- 

o  o 

dency  to  cities  as  in  any  way  an  American  monop- 
oly. It  is,  in  truth,  a  feature  of  modern  civilization. 
Owen  Pike,  in  his  remarkable  work,  "  The  History 
of  Crime  in  England,"  has  shown  that  this  very  ten- 
dency has  been  in  operation  among  our  English 


CITY    AND   COUNT11Y    LIVING.  213 

kinsfolk  ever  since  the  reign  of  Edward  II.  (1307- 
1327),  that  is,  for  more  than  five  centuries.  In  Ed- 
ward's time  the  rural  population  of  England  was 
about  eleven-twelfths,  or  more  than  ninety-one  per 
cent.,  of  the  whole.  In  the  year  1861  it  had  fallen 
to  forty  per  cent.,  and  in  1871  to  thirty-eight  per 
cent.  Pike  attributes  this  change  mainly  to  the 
great  inventors  of  the  last  and  the  present  centu- 
ries, who  have  created  new  and  remunerative  occu- 
pations. "  In  the  great  bulk  of  the  nation,"  he  says, 
"  they  have  substituted  town  life  for  country  life."  * 
This  is  a  far  stronger  statement  than  could  be  made 
of  the  most  thickly  settled  parts  of  the  United 
States;  and  with  our  nation  as  a  whole  "the  great 
bulk"  is  still  enormously  in  the  ranks  of  rural  life. 
It  would  be  easy  to  show  that  this  change  goes 
far  beyond  the  English-speaking  nations.  The  con- 
centration of  French  life  in  Paris  has  long  been  seen 
and  lamented,  and  it  has  extended  so  far  that  the 
provinces  are  hardly  credited  with  independent  opin- 
ions. "To  ask  what  the  provinces  think,"  said  a 
celebrated  Frenchman,  "  is  like  asking  what  a  man's 
legs  think."  The  practice  of  subdividing  small  rural 
properties  everywhere  had  tended,  it  was  supposed, 
to  anchor  the  French  peasantry  to  the  soil,  and  yet 
the  latest  observers  point  out  that  this  tie  is  wholly 

*  "  The  History  of  Crime  in  England,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  409. 


214  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

ineffectual.  In  the  first  number  of  the  Quarterly 
Journal  of  Economics  its  enlightened  Paris  corre- 
spondent, Arthur  Mangin,  says  that  in  France  "  the 
development  of  industrial  labor  and  the  great  works 
undertaken  by  the  State  and  by  cities  have  brought 
about  a  steady  emigration  of  peasants  to  the  cities, 
and  a  rise  in  agricultural  wages,  which  in  some  re- 
gions is  from  200  to  300  per  cent."  *  Even  in  Rus- 
sia, the  newspapers  tell  us,  anxiety  is  felt  at  the  ten- 
dency of  the  former  serfs  to  abandon  their  lands, 
and  congregate  around  larger  employers  of  labor  or 
else  in  cities. 

But  the  true  solution  of  the  matter  appears  to  lie 
in  a  direction  where  Mr.  Allen,  perhaps  from  having 
made  too  rapid  a  trip  through  "  the  States,"  has 
failed  to  find  it.  In  the  older  parts  of  the  Ameri- 
can Union,  side  by  side  with  the  abandonment  of 
the  rural  regions  as  the  sole  or  permanent  residence, 
has  come  np  an  enormous  increase  of  those  who 
are,  so  to  speak,  double  residents  of  city  and  coun- 
try— the  one  in  the  winter,  the  other  in  the  summer. 
In  the  mild  winters  of  England,  where  there  is  not 
a  month  in  the  year  in  which  some  flower  does  not 
bloom  out-of-doors,  and  hardly  one  in  which  some 
bird  does  not  build  its  nest,  this  distinction  is  less 
sharp;  and  Americans  are  always  surprised  to  find 

*  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  p.  98. 


CITY    AND    COUNTRY   LIVING.  215 

their  English  cousins  staying  in  the  countiy  till 
Christmas,  and  then  in  London  till  July.  But  in 
our  Northern  States  the  distinction  of  seasons  is  so 
very  marked  as  to  be  destined  to  mould  the  perma- 
nent habit  of  our  people,  and  a  marked  change  has 
begun  within  forty  years.  Before  that  time  almost 
every  one  lived  either  in  city  or  country,  and  few 
had  a  home  in  each.  Now,  with  the  more  well-to- 
do  classes,  the  alternation  is  becoming  universal ;  the 
sea -side,  from  Campobello  to  Chesapeake  Bay,  is 
becoming  one  long  line  of  summer  cottages  or  ho- 
tels ;  and  in  the  wildest  mountain  regions  the  travel- 
ler ccmes  suddenly  upon  vast  lighted  corridors  with 
city  luxuries  and  prices,  billiards  and  lawn-tennis. 
The  summer  vacation  itself  is  in  its  present  form 
a  recent  evolution ;  schools  that  formerly  gave  but 
three  or  four  weeks  now  give  eight,  and  Harvard 
University,  which  in  1846  had  but  six  weeks  of 
such  interval,  has  now  fourteen. 

•  All  this  extraordinary  change  is  a  tribute  to  sum- 
mer, and  to  the  summer  habits  of  the  people.  We 
flee  from  the  country  in  October  or  November,  but 
only  to  return  to  it  in  May  or  June.  In  other 
words,  we  arc  adapting  our  social  life  to  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  American  climate.  That  the  final 
arrangement  has  been  reached  it  is  impossible  to 
say,  and  the  present  fancy  in  our  Northern  Atlantic 
States  for  tobogganing  and  other  Canadian  winter 


216  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

sports  may  point  to  some  further  modification.  But  at 
present  it  may  certainly  be  claimed  that  in  the  most 
thickly  settled  parts  of  the  nation  there  is  a  distinct 
acceptance  of  the  old  English  maxim,  "All  summer 
in  the  field,  all  winter  in  the  study."  Those  who 
have  the  right  of  choice  will  not  forego,  if  they  can 
help  it,  the  winter  pleasures  of  the  city  or  the  town, 
its  lighted  streets,  its  gay  passers-by,  its  social  inter- 
course, its  concerts,  theatres,  libraries.  But  neither 
will  they  forego  the  rural  or  sea-side  cnjoynients  of 
the  summer.  AVhen  the  season  of  migration  comes, 
you  can  no  more  hold  them  back  than  you  could 
keep  back  the  bluebirds  and  the  orioles. 


XLIII. 
THE  HUMOR  OF  CHILDREN. 

THAT  is  a  surprising  remark  lately  made  by  one 
.who  is  usually  a  very  acute  observer,  Mr.  C.  D. 
Warner,  to  the  effect  that  children  under  twelve 
have  commonly  no  sense  of  humor.  No  doubt  these 
young  things  vary,  like  their  elders,  in  temperament. 
Some  of  them  are,  from  the  cradle,  as  devoid  of  all 
capacity  for  fun  as  a  travelling  Englishman ;  but  if 
there  is  one  quality  which  I  should  attribute,  in  nor- 
mal cases,  to  very  young  children,  it  is  the  sense  of 
humor.  You  presuppose  it  inevitably  in  your  very 
first  elementary  game  with  your  baby,  when  you  al- 
ternately hide  your  face  and  show  it,  with  the  cry 
"  Peep-bo  !"  The  child  knows  perfectly  well  that 
you  are  not  in  two  places  at  once ;  the  sense  of  sur- 
prise is  what  tickles ;  and  very  soon  it  catches  the 
trick  itself,  and  enjoys  the  humor  of  pretending  to 
be  in  one  place  and  presently  bobbing  up  in  another. 
One  of  the  most  familiar  expressions  in  the  eye  of 
a  child,  I  should  say,  is  the  twinkle  of  humor;  and 
every  parent  knows  that  one  of  the  best  ways  of 
overcoming  a  fit  of  anger  or  distress  is  to  appeal 


218  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

to  this  instinct.  Fancy  Abraham  Lincoln  or  Mark 
Twain  postponing  the  development  of  humor  until 
twelve  years  old  !  Their  mothers — from  whom  they 
perhaps  inherited  the  gift — knew  better. 

Of  course  many  of  the  droll  sayings  we  quote  from 
children  are  not  droll  to  those  who  said  them ;  but 
there  are  more  which  are  so,  and  we  can  distinguish 
them  by  watching  for  the  twinkle.  The  little  girl 
who  rebelled  against  the  bathing-tub,  and  said,  in- 
dignantly, to  her  mother,  "  Don't  wash  me ;  wash  'at 
baby,"  pointing  to  the  naked  child  in  Knaus's  Ma- 
donna on  the  wall,  evidently  enjoyed  the  flavor  of 
her  own  remark.  She  knew  that  the  proposed  scape- 
goat of  her  punishment  was  but  a  flat  surface,  for 
she  had  often  examined  it  with  eye  and  finger,  but 
the  humor  of  the  defiance  pleased  her  very  soul. 
Again,  where  the  mistakes  and  whims  of  very  young 
children  are  not  humorous  to  themselves  at  the  time, 
they  usually  become  so  very  soon  after.  Any  child 
of  five  will  be  entertained  by  your  narrative  of  what 
it  said  and  did  at  two  or  three  years,  nor  will  it  miss 
a  single  good  point  in  the  retrospect.  In  a  family 
of  children,  all  under  twelve,  each  will  commonly 
appreciate  the  unconscious  drolleries  of  the  next 
younger ;  Susy  quotes  what  Prudy  has  said,  and 
Prudy  again  cites  with  delight  the  unexpected  re- 
marks of  Dotty  Dimple.  How  does  this  happen 
unless  children  have  humor  in  themselves?  If  there 


THE    HUMOR    OF   CHILDREN.  219 

is  any  faculty  not  transferable  at  second-hand  it  is 
this.  No  maternal  assurances  that  a  thing  is  amus- 
ing will  ever  make  it  such  to  a  child,  unless  the  child 
has  a  sense  of  humor. 

The  games  of  young  children,  and,  above  all,  their 
play  with  dolls,  are  a  scene  of  genuine  humor  from 
the  beginning.  The  doll  is  not  merely  loved  and 
kissed,  but  is  rebuked,  scolded,  put  on  probation, 
punished ;  a  child  will  do  this  alone,  or  two  or  three 
will  do  it  together,  and  with  a  zest  which  certainly 
comes  by  nature,  not  by  instruction.  You  might  as 
well  say  that  there  is  no  instinct  in  the  way  a  kitten 
plays  with  its  first  mouse  as  to  deny  the  instinct  of 
humor  to  the  child  when  she  first  "makes  believe" 
that  her  doll  Arabella  is  naughty.  No  matter  how 
red  Arabella's  cheeks  are,  how  flossy  her  hair,  how 
blue  her  winking  eyes,  she  is  liable  at  any  moment 
to  be  dethroned  from  power  and  put  in  the  darkest 
of  dark  closets  for  a  purely  imaginary  sin ;  while 
plain  Jane,  armless,  legless,  and  featureless,  is  en- 
throned in  her  stead.  The  doll  really  appeals  to 
the  child's  whole  nature,  not  merely  to  the  affec- 
tional  part  of  it;  and  a  doll's  house  with  no  sense 
of  humor  brought  to  bear  on  it  would  be  a  blighted 
home.  It  was  in  the  full  appreciation  of  what  she 
said  that  a  little  girl  remarked  to  me,  many  years 
ago,  holding  up  a  doll  of  her  own  sex  whose  legs 
had  wholly  vanished,  "  See !  he's  broke  both  his 


220  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

legs  short  off;  he  has  to  walk  on  his  drawers." 
There  was  no  denying  the  extent  of  the  catastro- 
phe ;  it  was  on  a  par  with  that  of  the  historic  "With- 
crington  in  one  version  of  the  old  ballad  of  "  Chevy 
Chase :" 

"Of  Witherington  I  needs  must  speak, 

As  one  in  doleful  dumps ; 
For  when  his  legs  were  smitten  off 
lie  fought  upon  his  stumps." 

But  the  peculiarity  was  that  the  child  herself,  per- 
haps five  years  old,  evidently  felt  all  the  grotesque- 
ness  of  her  own  conception. 

Again,  if  children  have  no  sense  of  humor,  whence 
comes  their  admitted  dramatic  aptitude?  So  far  as 
I  have  seen,  this  gift  is  far  more  universally  distrib- 
uted among  children  than  among  their  elders,  as  any 
one  can  test  by  alternately  getting  up  little  dramat- 
ic performances  in  the  younger  and  older  circles  of 
a  large  family  connection.  Perhaps  the  greater  un- 
consciousness of  children  may  have  something  to  do 
with  it,  yet  it  really  seems  as  if,  apart  from  this,  the 
imitative  power  were  more  flexible  in  early  youth 
than  later,  as  is  well  known  to  be  the  case  with  the 
organs  of  language.  Nothing  is  more  marvellous  to 
me  than  the  manner  in  which  these  young  creatures 
will  create  for  themselves,  or  with  the  very  slightest 
aid  from  others,  the  proper  tone  or  expression  be- 
longing to  an  emotion  they  never  have  experienced. 


THE    HUMOR    OF    CHILDREN.  221 

The  favorite  play  of  the  most  petted  children  is 
often  that  of  a  family  with  a  scolding  mother ;  and 
how  admirably  do  they  in  turn  enact  a  character 
which  they  have  never  even  seen  !  I  remember  to 
have  officiated  in  the  humble  capacity  of  stage-mana- 
ger, long  since,  when  two  little  girls  of  six  repre- 
sented the  successive  tableaux  of  a  pretty  German 
book,  describing  the  day's-  friendship  of  two  chil- 
dren. One  picture  represented  a  quarrel,  the  play- 
mates pulling  at  a  doll  which  each  desires.  The 
little  performers  got  into  a  great  frolic  just  before 
the  curtain  went  up;  there  was  not  a  moment  to 
tutor  them ;  but  in  the  very  instant,  as  the  curtain 
rose,  both  faces  passed  into  a  look  of  childish  an- 
ger that  was  absolutely  startling.  They  were  pecul- 
iarly amiable  children,  and  had  never  had  anything 
but  happiness  with  one  another;  yet  they  brought 
instantaneously  into  their  looks,  without  a  hint  from 
any  one,  an  expression  which  Janauschek  or  Ellen 
Terry  might  have  envied.  Such  a  feat  would  be 
impossible  to  those  who  had  no  natural  sense  of 
humor. 


XLIV. 
PAROCHIALISM. 

WE  arc  gradually  clearing  ourselves,  in  America, 
from  the  lingering  spirit  of  colonialism.  The  change 
is  fortunate,  but  even  the  civil  war  has  not  yet  rid 
us  of  what  rnay  be  called  parochialism,  or  what 
would  be  called  in  Germany  particularism — the  im- 
pression tli at  we  are  citizens  of  this  or  that  common- 
wealth, or  region,  or  city,  instead  of  claiming  alle- 
giance to  the  Great  Republic.  The  habit  proceeds 
largely,  no  doubt,  from  the  vast  size  of  our  land, 
which  even  railroads  and  migratory  habits  cannot 
easily  compass.  It  is  also  strengthened,  perhaps,  by 
the  absence  of  any  satisfactory  name  for  this  great 
nation.  Had  it  been  called  Columbia  or  Washington 
the  word  would  have  been  uncouth  enough,  but  it 
would  have  carried  with  it  a  sense  of  unquestionable 
unity,  which  the  collective  phrase  "United  States" 
has  seemed  rather  to  deprecate.  If  something  of 
this  disadvantage  has  been  felt  all  over  the  nation, 
it  was  still  worse  in  those  parts  of  it  where  the  pa- 
rochialism was  thought  to  be  an  advantage,  and  was 
christened  "  State  Rights."  No  doubt  one  reason 


PAROCHIALISM.  223 

for  the  paucity  of  Southern  literature  before  the 
civil  war  was  the  fact  that  the  most  gifted  writer 
in  that  region  was  apt  to  feel  that  he  had  nothing 
larger  than  a  State  behind  him  ;  and  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  the  poet  Hayne,  in  speaking  of  the  Confed- 
eracy after  its  formation,  still  described  its  members 
only  as  "sister  nations,"  as  if  disclaiming  all  thought 
of  national  unity,  even  there.  In  general,  however, 
the  war  may  be  said  to  have  put  an  end  to  this  feel- 
ing, in  a  political  sense,  and  to  have  substituted  the 
nation  for  the  individual  State  as  the  unit  of  loyal- 
ty. Hayne  and  Lanier,  Simms  and  Kennedy,  are 
now  included,  even  against  their  will,  in  the  litera- 
ture of  a  nation. 

This  being  the  case,  we  should  live  up  to  it  in 
all  ways.  We  are  Americans,  not  merely  residents 
of  Meddibemps  at  one  extremity  or  Seattle  at  the 
other.  We  have  to  hold  our  own,  in  the  way  of 
self  -  respect,  against  the  other  populations  of  the 
earth's  surface,  and  we  certainly  must  make  common 
cause,  and  not  fritter  away  our  strength  in  the  petty 
jealousies  of  a  thousand  little  parishes.  When  we 
see  Americans  in  Europe  we  are  proud  of  them,  if 
they  deserve  our  pride,  or  ashamed  of  them,  if  they 
cause  us  shame,  and  this  without  the  slightest  refer- 
ence to  the  part  of  our  country  from  which  they  came. 
Why  should  it  be  otherwise  when  we  are  at  home 
again  ?  But  in  fact  the  mutual  criticism  of  Eastern 


224  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

and  Western,  Northern  and  Southern,  is  often  very 
much  like  that  between  Englishmen  and  Americans ; 
it  is  not  fraternal,  but  critical,  almost  satirical — "  a 
little  more  than  kin  and  less  than  kind."  In  Eng- 
land the  very  compliments  given  to  an  American 
are  apt  to  sting.  If  he  does  not  speak  through  his 
nose  or  talk  like  Bret  Ilarte's  heroes,  he  is  regarded 
as  exceptional.  "You  an  American! — I  give  you 
my  word  of  honor  I  never  should  have  suspected 
it."  These  words,  which  he  is  equally  liable  to  hear 
from  his  host,  his  tailor,  and  the  waiting-maid  at 
his  inn,  are  more  annoying  than  any  personal  cen- 
sure, and  make  him  long  for  a  moment  to  tilt  his 
chair,  to  put  his  feet  on  the  table,  to  do  anything 
that  shall  free  him  from  being  thus  complimented 
at  the  expense  of  his  race. 

And  yet  this  class  of  remarks  may  be  constantly 
heard  in  our  own  cities  as  regards  strangers  from 
some  other  city.  When  a  lady  visiting  Boston  from 
Chicago  is  kindly  assured  that  no  one  would  suppose 
her  to  be  Western,  or  one  visiting  Chicago  from 
Boston  is  gently  vindicated  from  the  charge  of  being 
Eastern,  it  is  as  insulting  as  the  unconscious  inso- 
lence of  these  English  remarks.  We  are  all  Ameri- 
cans; the  honors  of  one  are  the  honors  of  all;  the 
discredit  of  one  is  the  discredit  of  everybody.  If 
in  various  parts  of  the  country  we  have  a  variety  of 
gestures,  intonations,  phrases,  manners,  it  is  that  we 


PAROCHIALISM.  225 

may  compare  these  different  methods  candidly,  gen- 
erously, and  with  mutual  respect,  and  thus  gradu- 
ally eliminate  what  is  undesirable,  and  select  the 
best.  What  we  desire,  or  should  desire,  is  to  have 
the  American  type  the  best  type  that  the  world  has 
ever  seen.  Nothing  short  of  this  is  an  aim  worthy 
the  effort. 

If  this  is  true  of  society  and  manners,  it  is  still 
truer  of  literature.  What  can  be  less  profitable  than 
all  this  talk  about  a  literary  centre,  this  foolish  strug- 
gle between  rival  cities?  What  we  want  is  a  litera- 
ture; given  that,  and  the  centre  will  take  care  of  it- 
self. It  is  not  even  important  that  there  should  be 
a  centre  ;  a  hundred  nodal  points,  each  sending  forth 
its  germinating  and  vital  influence,  will  do  just  as 
well,  and  will  be  more  befitting  for  a  nation  that 
includes  the  breadth  of  a  continent,  and  may  yet  in- 
clude its  length  also.  What  we  need  is  to  produce 
good  books ;  this  once  done,  it  makes  no  more  dif- 
ference in  what  part  of  the  country  they  are  pro- 
duced than  in  what  part  of  a  man's  farm — the  north- 
east or  south-west  corner — he  raises  those  fine  apples. 
Where  there  is  a  good  author,  there  is  the  beginning 
of  a  literary  centre ;  where  MacGrcgor  sits,  there  is 
the  head  of  the  table.  WTe  arc  all  enriched  when 
Miss  Murfrcc  suddenly  reveals  to  us  a  new  literary 
centre  in  Tennessee,  or  Miss  Edith  Thomas  in  Ohio, 
or  Hubert  Bancroft  in  San  Francisco.  The  concen- 
15 


226  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

tration  of  literature  into  a  new  London  or  Paris  is 
not  to  be  expected  among  us,  perhaps  not  to  be  de- 
sired. That  implies  a  small  and  highly  centralized 
civilization,  whose  outskirts  shall  be  as  little  given 
to  literature  as  the  English  colonies  or  the  French 
provinces;  whereas  what  we  need  is  the  develop- 
ment of  a  high  literary  life  through  a  number  of 
different  fountain-heads.  The  nation  should  pro- 
duce its  fair  share  of  the  recognized  masterpieces 
of  the  world's  literature — or,  if  you  please,  of  the 
works  which  are  still  masterpieces,  though  unrecog- 
nized— or  else,  at  least,  of  the  writings  that  influence 
their  time,  and  then  become  a  part  of  the  "choir 
invisible."  There  is  promise  of  all  this,  but  it  can 
only  be  fulfilled  by  dismissing  all  the  petty  paro- 
chialism of  local  rivalries.  The  Arabs,  before  Mo- 
hammed's time,  used  to  hold  high  festival  over  two 
things — the  advent  of  a  new  poet  and  the  birth  of  a 
colt  of  eminent  breed.  The  former  festival  at  least 
we  Americans  should  celebrate,  even  if  the  advent 
of  the  bard  should  occur  on  the  utmost  border  of 
the  Aleutian  Islands. 


XLV. 
OX  VISITING  THE  SICK. 

IT  is  a  curious  fact,  and  one  not  quite  creditable 
to  the  good-sense  of  the  human  race,  that  the  one 
duty  which  is  sure  to  devolve  on  everybody  first  or 
last  is  so  often  ill  done.  Everybody,  from  the  rough- 
est frontiersman  to  the  most  luxurious  city -bred 
woman,  is  pretty  sure,  in  the  course  of  years,  to  be 
called  on  to  visit  some  person  who  is  ill.  Having 
been  brought,  through  circumstances,  somewhat  in 
contact  with  invalids,  I  have  never  ceased  to  be  as- 
tonished to  see  how  poorly,  on  the  whole,  we  dis- 
charge this  inevitable  and  most  important  duty. 

The  first  error  is  in  regard  to  quantity,  the  second 
in  regard  to  quality.  We  cannot,  perhaps,  visit  the 
sick  too  much,  if  we  have  time  for  it ;  but  we  can 
easily  visit  them  a  great  deal  too  much  at  any  one 
time.  Many  a  sick-room  would  be  helped  and  glad- 
dened by  a  glimpse  of  a  friendly  face  every  few 
days,  for  three  minutes  at  a  time.  But  wait  for  a 
month,  and  consolidate  these  scattered  minutes  into 
three-quarters  of  an  hour,  and  how  different  the  re- 
sult !  The  new  face  soon  becomes  a  burden,  the 


228  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

new  sensation  an  old  one ;  the  news  is  told,  the 
excitement  is  gone  by.  The  patient's  face,  at  first 
bright  and  eager,  becomes  tired  and  jaded  and  long, 
and  still  the  visitor  sits.  At  last  she  too — in  case 
it  be  a  woman — notices  the  change  in  her  friend's 
look,  and  she  springs  to  her  feet  and  says,  with  sin- 
cere but  tardy  contrition,  "I  am  afraid  I  have  tired 
you."  "Oh  no,"  says  the  patient ;"  not  at  all." 
It  is  her  last  gasp  for  that  morning;  she  can  scarce- 
ly muster  strength  to  say  it ;  but  let  us  be  polite  or 
die. 

Brevity  is  the  soul  of  visiting,  as  of  wit,  and  in 
both  cases  the  soul  is  hard  to  grasp.  As  some  preach- 
er used  to  follow  a  sound  maxim  for  his  sermons, 
"No  soul  saved  after  the  first  twenty  minutes,"  so 
you  cannot  aid  in  saving  the  sick  body  after  the  first 
five.  Harriet  Martineau,  in  her  "  Life  in  the  Sick- 
room," says  that  invalids  are  fortunate  if  there  is  not 
some  intrusive  person  who  needs  to  be  studiously 
kept  at  a  distance.  But  the  peril  of  which  I  speak 
comes  not  from  the  intrusive,  but  from  the  affec- 
tionate and  the  conscientious — those  who  bring  into 
the  room  every  conceivable  qualification  for  kind 
service  except  observation  and  tact.  The  invalid's 
foes  are  they  of  his  or  her  own  household,  or,  at 
any  rate,  are  near  friends  or  kind  neighbors.  The 
kinder  they  are  the  worse,  unless  they  are  able  to 
show  this  high  quality  in  the  right  way.  If  they 


ON    VISITING   THE    SICK.  229 

could  only  learn  to  plan  their  visits  on  the  basis 
of  Sam  Weller's  love-letter,  which  was  criticised  by 
his  father  as  rather  short !  "  She'll  wish  there  was 
more  of  it,"  said  Sam ;  "and  that's  the  whole  art  o' 
letter-writing."  For  want  of  this  art  the  helpless 
invalid  is  linrt  instead  of  helped ;  she  cannot,  like 
other  people,  assist  the  departure  of  the  guest  by 
pleading  an  engagement,  or  even  by  rising  from  the 
chair;  she  must  wait  until  the  inconsiderate  visitor 
is  gone.  Under  such  circumstances  she  really  needs 
to  be  saved  from  her  friends.  I  remember  a  certain 
colonel  in  the  army  who  was  sometimes  suspected 
of  shamming,  and  of  whom  his  sub-officers  would 
say,  sarcastically,  some  morning,  "He  is  very  ill — 
too  ill  to  see  his  surgeon."  There  are  really  many 
invalids  who  are  too  ill  to  see  their  friends  and  sym- 
pathizers and  cousins,  except  with  the  aid  of  a  three- 
minute  glass,  like  that  by  which  eggs  arc  boiled. 

But  there  is  an  error  in  respect  to  such  visiting 
that  is  more  serious  than  that  of  quantity.  What  is 
there  in  the  outer  world  from  which  it  is  the  hard 
lot  of  invalids  to  be  excluded  ?  Sunshine,  fresh  air, 
and  the  healthy  life  of  mankind.  These,  then,  are 
what  the  visitor  should  bring,  figuratively  at  least, 
into  the  sick-room.  Instead  of  these,  how  many 
bring  the  very  opposite — clouds  and  shadows,  and 
that  which  is  unwholesome  and  unhealthy.  They 
keep  the  invalid  talking  about  the  very  things  which 


230  WOMEN    AND    HEX. 

need  most  to  be  forgotten — symptoms  and  medi- 
cines. They  discuss  the  varieties  of  medicine  as 
topers  debate  the  merit  of  different  wines;  and  is 
dear  Amelia  quite  sure  that  it  would  not  be  best  to 
change  her  physician  ?  Worst  of  all,  they  tell  the 
distressing  symptoms  of  others ;  the  mournful  cases, 
the  bereavements,  the  approaching  funerals.  Strange 
to  say,  professional  nurses  themselves  are  very  much 
given  to  this  sort  of  talk,  and  would  be  much  more 
beneficial  companions  were  they  dumb.  Perhaps 
the  visitor  chimes  in,  and  joins  with  the  nurse  in  a 
melancholy  duet.  It  is,  I  take  it,  almost  impossible 
for  any  one  in  health  to  appreciate  the  hold  that 
these  things  take  upon  an  invalid.  The  visitor  goes 
away  into  the  outer  air,  and  the  very  breeze  soon 
carries  away  all  memory  of  the  misplaced  conversa- 
tion ;  but  the  invalid  remains  anchored  to  one  spot, 
and  broods,  and  broods,  and  broods.  She  is  fortu- 
nate if  her  sleep  is  not  broken  that  night  by  the 
odious  phantoms  for  which  her  dear  friend  has,  with 
studious  care,  furnished  the  materials. 

There  are  other  ways  in  which  a  visitor  may  hurt 
while  intending  only  to  help.  There  are  the  cross- 
questioners,  'who  make  the  invalid  do  all  the  talk- 
ing; the  fingerers,  who  displace  her  cushions,  drop 
her  orange,  and  leave  her  glass  of  water  just  beyond 
her  reach  ;  the  gazers,  who  fix  their  eyes  scrutiniz- 
ingly  on  her,  and  never  take  them  off.  But  enough 


ON    VISITING   TIIE    SICK.  231 

has  been  said  to  show  that  there  is  a  way  to  do  ev- 
erything well  or  ill,  and  that  the  art  of  visiting  the 
sick  is  not  one  of  the  things  which  are  so  absolutely 
easy  as  to  require  no  thought  or  apprenticeship.  It 
is  one  of  the  finest  of  the  fine  arts;  it  must  have 
disinterested  kindness  at  the  foundation  ;  and  then 
implies,  like  all  other  forms  of  good -manners,  the 
most  delicate  observation,  and  that  prompt  and  clear 
judgment  which  can  neither  be  dispensed  with  nor 
described. 


XLVI. 
THE  FEAR  OF  ITS  BEING  WASTED. 

IT  is  a  curious  whim  this,  which  returns  every 
now  and  then,  that  the  higher  education  of  women 
should  be  discouraged  because  "  in  case  of.  marriage 
it  will  all  be  wasted."  It  is  one  of  the  bugbears 
which  Mary  Wollstonecraft  thought  she  had  demol- 
ished, and  Margaret  Fuller  after  her;  but  it  bears  a 
great  deal  of  killing.  Those  who  still  bring  it  up 
show  how  little  importance  they  really  attach  to 
those  functions  of  marriage  and  parentage  about 
which  they  are  continually  talking.  If  they  really 
rated  these  duties  so  high,  they  would  see  that  no 
amount  of  intellectual  development  could  be  wasted 
in  preparing  for  them. 

The  statistics  of  about  seven  hundred  collegiate 
alumna?,  as  tabulated  by  the  Massachusetts  Bureau 
of  Statistics,  showed  that  about  a  quarter  of  the  num- 
ber were  already  married ;  and  as  their  average  age 
was  then  but  twenty-eight,  it  could  be  well  assumed 
that  the  percentage  of  wedlock  would  yet  be  largely 
increased.  There  is  nothing  in  the  reports  to  show 
that  any  of  these  wives  felt  that  their  education  had 


THE   FEAR    OF   ITS    BEING    WASTED.          233 

been  wasted ;  and  if  any  of  them  were  really  so 
foolish,  they  have  perhaps  grown  wiser  already.  It 
is  not  at  all  uncommon  for  young  men  to  feel  in  that 
same  way,  for  a  year  or  two  after  leaving  college, 
when  the  door  of  success  or  employment  seems  as 
if  it  were  locked  on  the  wrong  side.  A  few  years 
will,  however,  teach  them  that  a  well-trained  brain 
is  a  good  preparation  for  any  conceivable  pursuit, 
and  that  a  well-stored  mind  is  one  of  the  very  great- 
est blessings,  whether  a  man  is  suffering  under  the 
chagrin  of  failure  or  the  ennui  of  success.  So,  many 
a  woman,  it  may  be,  has  for  a  moment  distrusted  the 
value  of  her  own  training,  when  she  found  herself, 
in  Emerson's  words, 

"  Servant  to  a  wooden  cradle, 
Living  in  a  baby's  life ;" 

or  in  days  when  all  her  mathematics  must  be  brought 
down  to  the  arithmetic  of  teething,  and  all  her  mu- 
sic must  be  laid  aside  to  attend  to  the  musical  in- 
strument of  sweeter  tone  that  says,  "  Mother."  No 
doubt  the  function  of  motherhood  takes  a  dozen 
absorbing  years  out  of  many  a  young  woman's  life. 
All  the  better  for  her,  then,  if  she  has  gained  the 
material  for  intellectual  activity  before  that  day 
comes.  If  an  army  is  about  to  cross  a  desert  where 
there  is  no  food,  this  only  affords  more  reason  for 
filling  up  the  haversacks  and  canteens. 


234  AVOMEN    AND    MEN. 

It  is  easy  to  point  out  a  few  of  the  unanswerable 
reasons  why  a  woman  needs  the  best  possible  edu- 
cation, even  if  she  is  to  be  married  the  day  after  she 
takes  her  last  diploma.  To  begin  on  the  lowest 
plane,  there  is  often  the  material  need  of  self-sup- 
port, and  of  that  which  is  much  more  than  self-sup- 
port, since  it  may  involve  the  sustaining  of  children 
and  even  of  a  husband.  In  a  late  report  of  one  of 
our  highest  institutions  for  women,  the  estimate  was 
made  by  the  directors  that  about  half  the  students 
apparently  came  there  to  prepare  for  earning  a  liv- 
ing, and  the  other  half  from  a  simple  desire  for  self- 
improvement.  In  our  changing  society  it  would  not 
be  strange  if  these  two  halves  were  to  shift  places — 
if  the  half  who  expected  to  support  themselves  were 
destined,  after  all,  to  be  cared  for  by  others,  and  the 
half  who  felt  sure  of  a  support  were  to  be  thrown 
on  themselves.  Who  can  foretell  ?  As  to  external 
fortunes,  at  least,  the  happiest  marriage  is  but  a 
lottery.  In  our  homely  rural  phrase, "It  takes  but 
about  three  generations  from  shirt-sleeves  to  shirt- 
sleeves." We  meet  every  day  women  bred  to  com- 
petence, and  perhaps  married  into  luxury,  who  now 
need  all  that  the  trained  brain  can  do  for  them,  as, 
to  mere  material  provision.  At  the  first  Normal 
School  exhibition  I  ever  attended,  thirty  years  ago, 
I  remember  the  calm  brow,  the  clear  eyes,  the  rose- 
bud cheeks,  of  the  class  poet;  she  seemed  one  of 


THE    FEAR    OF   ITS    BEING   WASTED.          235 

those  fair  creatures  for  whom  all'  life  must  be 
smoothed,  as  it  always  had  been  ;  and  when,  ere- 
long, she  was  happily  married,  she  appeared  one  of 
those  who  retire  forever  from  the  public  gaze,  and 
whose  education  is  called  wasted.  By  no  means : 
the  best  of  husbands  may  fail  in  business  or  in 
health,  and  then  we  sec  of  what  material  the  wife 
is  made.  This  woman  has  for  many  years  been  the 
main  support  of  her  own  large  household,  and  has 
in  so  doing  developed  a  literary  talent,  and  an  espe- 
cial genius  for  teaching,  that  have  made  her  books 
the  inspiration  and  the  guidance  of  a  thousand 
homes.  She  is  but  a  type  of  a  myriad  women,  all 
over  this  country,  whose  education  has  paid  for  it- 
self over  and  over  again,  in  the  mere  material  aspect. 
And  even  Avhere  this  material  use  of  education  has 
not  been  actually  necessary,  how  much  stronger  and 
freer  a  woman  is  when  she  knows  that  she  has  this 
intellectual  capital,  and  can  at  any  time  put  it  to  use  ! 
Then  comes,  too,  the  higher  use  to  be  made  of  it, 
not  for  material  objects  alone,  but  for  the  good  of 
all.  The  great  changes  of  the  last  thirty  years, 
placing  upon  women  so  much  of  the  practical  or- 
ganization of  philanthropies  and  the  guidance,  of  so- 
ciety, have  gone  hand-in-hand  with  the  higher  edu- 
cation. The  Sanitary  Commission  and  the  Women's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  are  striking  instances 
of  this  organized  development.  The  Society  of  Col- 


236  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

Icgiatc  Alumnse  promises  a  vast  deal  further  in  the 
same  direction.  The  whole  course  of  later  Ameri- 
can history  has  been  perceptibly  affected  by  the  fact 
that  Harriet  Beechcr  Stowe  wrote  "  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin;"  the  whole  relation  between  the  white  race 
on  this  continent  and  the  aborigines  is  being  influ- 
enced by  the  fact  that  Helen  Jackson  wrote  "A  Cen- 
tury of  Dishonor"  and  "Rarnona,"  We  cannot,  if 
we  would,  keep  woman's  hand  off  the  helm,  since 
even  the  Greek  orator  Demosthenes  confessed  that 
measures  which  the  statesman  had  meditated  for  a 
year  might  be  overturned  in  a  day  by  a  woman. 
But  it  is  for  us  to  decide  whether  this  power  shall 
be  exercised  by  an  enlightened  mind  or  an  unen- 
lightened one — by  Madame  Roland  or  Theroigne 
dc  Mericourr. 

Finally,  let  us  meet  the  objection  on  its  most  fa- 
miliar ground,  and  assume  that  all  the  main  work  of 
the  world  is  to  be  done  by  men.  Who  are  to  bear 
or  rear  those  men  ?  Women.  In  every  land  that 
missionaries  visit  it  is  found,  first  or  last,  to  be  quite 
useless  to  educate  only  the  men.  Take  men  of  any 
race  at  the  time  when  they  pass  out  of  the  care  of 
women,  and  you  take  them  too  late.  Their  characters 
are  already  formed,  and  have  been  formed  mainly  by 
the  other  sex.  Hence  everywhere  we  sec  missiona- 
ries establishing  schools  for  women  in  order  to  teach 
men.  The  South  Sea  Islanders  have  a  proverb — 


THE    FEAR    OP   ITS   BEING   WASTED.          237 

"  If  strong  is  the  frame  of  the  mother, 
The  sou  will  give  laws  to  the  people." 

If  for  "  frame"  we  read  "  brain,"  it  is  the  same  tiling. 
He  who  receives  from  his  mother  a  good  frame,  a 
good  brain,  and  a  good  disposition,  is  equipped  to 
serve  the  world.  But  how  can  we  secure  these 
things  for  him  unless  they  exist  in  her? 


XLVII. 
THE  NERVOUSNESS  OF  MEN". 

THE  physiologists  tell  us  that  nervousness  is  the 
peculiar  attribute  of  women.  May  not  this  be  be- 
cause it  is  usually  men  who  write  the  books  of  phys- 
iology ;  so  that  women  might  say,  like  the  lions  in 
^Esop's  fable,  that  if  the  other  party  had  been  the 
painters  the  case  would  be  different?  It  would  be 
worth  while  to  consult  the  wife  of  some  musical  en- 
thusiast, for  instance,  who  has  carried  his  art  to  such 
a  point  that  it  causes  him  and  everybody  else  more 
pain  than  pleasure — the  man  who  must  have  every 
door  in  the  house  deadened,  every  carpet  doubled, 
every  visitor  seen  by  some  one  else  before  admit- 
tance, and  the  children  banished  to  regions  inac- 
cessible and  inaudible.  Paganini,  the  greatest  of 
violinists,  is  reported  to  have  found  existence  an 
absolute  burden  because  it  held  so  many  intolerable 
sounds  ;  and  many  a  woman  has  found  her  husband, 
even  where  unprofessional,  claiming  the  privilege  of 
Paganlni's  sensitiveness  without  his  genius.  Again, 
consider  the  extremely  nervous  condition  exhibited 
by  some  perfectly  healthy  men  when  called  upon 


THE    NERVOUSNESS    OF   MEN.  239 

to  appear  before  the  public  to  "make  a  few  re- 
marks," or  even  introduce  a  speaker.  It  is  often 
amusing,  at  a  public  dinner,  to  notice  the  difference 
between  the  man  who  has  made  his  little  speech 
and  the  man  who  has  not — the  jubilant  faces  of 
those  who  have  the  thing  off  their  minds,  the  depths 
of  preoccupied  care  or  downright  misery  on  the 
countenances  of  those  who  have  still  the  torture  in 
prospect.  Now  that  women  are  having  so  much 
practice  as  public  speakers,  they  are  rapidly  ceasing 
to  exhibit  any  more  nervousness  about  it  than  is 
constantly  shown  by  men. 

The  terrors  of  nervous  prostration — that  calam- 
ity which  seems  a  new  foe,  but  is  really  only  a  new 
name  for  an  old  one  —  haunt  men  almost  equally 
with  women.  If  men  hold  out  longer  against  its 
approaches,  which  is  doubtful,  they  succumb  almost 
more  hopelessly,  and  need  as  long  time  for  a  cure.  I 
know  young  men  of  fine  physique  who,  having  for 
a  year  or  two  undertaken  to  combine  too  many  dif- 
ferent anxieties — for  instance,  a  bread-earning  occu- 
pation and  the  study  of  a  profession — have  taken  to 
their  bed  in  utter  helplessness  and  frequent  tears,  and 
remained  there  for  months.  "  More  pangs  and  fears 
than  wars  or  women  have"  were  their  penalty  for 
an  over-taxation  of  the  nervous  system.  The  fact 
that,  as  the  life-insurance  companies  tell  us,  women 
on  the  whole  outlive  men,  seems  to  indicate  that 


240  WOMEN   AND   MEX. 

their  nerves,  if  more  sensitive  than  those  of  men, 
are  more  elastic,  and  offer  a  better  resistance  to  the 
wear  and  tear  of  events.  We  must  remember  too 
that  it  is  not  the  great  things  of  life  which  prove 
exhausting,  but  the  small  ones,  because  these  call 
out  less  in  the  way  of  resources  to  meet  them  ;  just 
as  people  take  cold  more  readily  after  a  warm  bath 
than  after  a  cold  one,  for  want  of  reaction.  "  You 
cannot  seriously  maintain,"  said  a  clever  woman 
once  to  me,  "  that  any  cares  of  political  or  business 
life  can  be  so  wearing,  on  the  whole,  as  the  task  of 
cooking  a  dinner."  Then  she  proceeded  to  explain 
how  the  cook,  before  every  dinner,  had  to  deal  with 
a  dozen  different  articles  of  food,  no  two  of  which 
Avere  to  be  prepared  in  the  same  manner,  or  manip- 
ulated with  the  same  touch,  or  exposed  to  the  same 
degree  and  kind  of  heat,  or  cooked  for  the  same 
length  of  time ;  that  the  cook  had  constantly  to  be 
going  from  one  to  the  other,  and  keeping  all  in 
mind  ;  and  that,  to  bring  them  all  out  in  readiness  at 
the  appointed  time,  neither  underdone  nor  overdone, 
neither  slack  baked  nor  burnt,  neither  too  cold  nor 
too  hot — that  this  was  an  achievement  worthy  of 
demi-gods  and  heroes.  And  I  was  quite  inclined, 
at  length,  to  be  convinced  :  certainly  it  was  much 
easier  for  me  to  own  myself  convinced  than  it 
would  have  been  to  prepare  the  meal. 

But  there  exists  in  every  household  a  short  and 


THE    NERVOUSNESS    OF    MEN.  241 

easy  method  of  testing  the  comparative  nervousness 
of  the  sexes.  Take  the  very  sweetest  and  most  do- 
mestic of  men,  the  most  hornc-loving  and  equable, 
and  see  if  he  can  have  patience  with  the  children, 
day  in  and  day  out,  as  can  a  wife  much  less  gifted 
by  nature  with  these  fine  qualities.  The  children 
may  be  the  sweetest  ever  born,  and  yet  each  will 
be  pretty  sure  to  pass  through  stages  in  its  develop- 
ment when  its  cross -questionings,  its  needless  re- 
sistings,  its  chronic  deafnesses,  its  endless  "What?" 
and  "  Why  «"  and  "  Whom  did  you  say  ?"  will  fur- 
nish grounds  of  practice  for  saintship.  Not  that 
all  mothers  arc  equal  to  this  task — far  from  it;  but 
when  it  comes  to  nerves,  the  average  mother  takes 
all  this  trial  and  pressure  in  a  way  that  puts  the 
average  father  to  shame.  I  knew  a  shrewd  woman 
who,  whenever  her  husband  had  given  her  a  lecture 
on  nervousness,  used  to  contrive  to  have  him  dress 
one  or  two  of  the  children  for  school  on  a  winter's 
morning,  after  a  breakfast  slightly  belated.  The 
good  man  would  fall  meekly  into  the  trap,  not  clear- 
ly remembering  the  vastness  of  the  labor — the  ad- 
justings  and  the  tyings  and  the  buttonings  ;  the 
leggings  and  the  overdrawers  and  the  arctic  shoes ; 
the  jacket,  scarf,  coat,  gloves,  mittens,  wristers;  the 
hat,  or  cap,  or  hood  to  be  pulled  and  pushed  and 
tied  in  proper  position  ;  the  way  in  which  all  these 
things,  besides  being  put  on,  have  to  be  mutually 
16 


242  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

made  fast  by  strings  and  buttons  and  safety-pins,  so 
that  the  child  thus  dressed  is  a  model  of  compressed 
stowage,  and  could,  like  a  well  -  packed  barrel  of 
china,  be  sent  round  the  world  without  injury.  Calm 
must  be'the  spirit,  high  the  purpose,  of  the  father 
who  reaches  the  end  of  this  complex  task  without 
a  word  of  impatience ;  while  the  wife  whom  he  calls 
nervous  has  long  since  taken  off  his  hands  the  other 
child  assigned  to  him,  and  having  with  deft  hands 
dressed  her,  has  given  one  patient,  final,  all-compre- 
hending twitch,  and  the  thing  is  done.  If  you  doubt 
whether  men  are  on  the  whole,  and  in  their  own 
way,  as  nervous  as  women,  test  them  with  getting 
the  children  ready  for  school ;  and  remember  that 
their  mother  does  it  every  morning  of  her  life. 


XLVIII. 
THE  GERMAN  STANDARD. 

AT  a  private  discussion  lately  held  among  persons 
interested  in  collegiate  and  other  education  it  seem- 
ed to  me  that  there  was  too  general  a  deference  to 
German  standards.  It  was  assumed,  in  particular, 
that  schools  for  young  children  must  necessarily  be 
far  better  if  taught  by  university-bred  men,  as  in 
Germany,  than  if  taught  by  young  women,  as  in 
this  country.  To  all  this  I  should  demur.  No  man 
in  America  ever  studied  the  German  systems  of 
common-school  instruction  more  faithfully  than  Hor- 
ace Mann ;  and  it  was  chiefly  to  him  that  we  owe, 
as  a  result,  the  general  substitution  of  women  for 
men  as  teachers.  The  greater  economy  of  employ- 
ing women  has  no  doubt  assisted  the  change ;  it 
would  have  been  simply  impossible,  in  fact,  with  the 
greater  expensiveness  of  living  in  this  country,  to 
obtain  the  services  of  a  sufficient  number  of  men  to 
give  to  our  public-school  system  anything  like  the 
vast  spread  it  has  now  obtained.  Yet  Horace  Mann 
urged  the  change,  not  on  the  ground  of  economy 
alone,  but  because  he  regarded  women  as. the  natural 


244  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

teachers  of  all  children.  His  views  have  prevailed. 
When  he  began  his  career,  just  half  a  century  ago, 
two-fifths  of  the  teachers  in  his  own  State  were  men, 
whereas  we  are  told  in  the  Fiftieth  Report  of  the 
Massachusetts  Board  of  Education,  just  issued,  that 
there  are  now  8610  women  to  1060  men — more 
than  eight  to  one. 

The  objections  usually  made  against  these  young 
women  lie,  first,  as  to  their  sex,  which  is,  however,  if 
Horace  Mann's  theory  be  correct,  rather  an  advan- 
tage 1>han  a  disadvantage.  Then  it  is  objected  that 
they  only  teach  temporarily,  on  their  way  to  some- 
thing else,  while  men  would  teach  for  life.  This 
claim  has  been  refuted  over  and  over  again  by  sta- 
tistics taken  in  particular  towns,  and  showing  that 
women  teachers  are  apt  to  remain  actually  longer 
than  men  who  teach  in  the  same  grade  of  school ; 
because  men  are  more  often  won  away  by  some  more 
lucrative  pursuit  than  are  women  by  matrimony. 
Of  course,  if  you  give  all  the  higher  positions  and 
all  the  higher  salaries,  as  is  still  done,  to  men,  you 
give  to  those  holding  these  more  advantageous  posts 
greater  inducements  to  remain  permanently  ;  but  as 
between  teachers  of  the  same  grade,  which  is  the 
only  fair  comparison,  these  statistics  hold.  As  a 
rule,  women  find  no  vocation  more  profitable  than 
teaching ;  while  men  are  more  fortunate,  and  have 
many  better  openings.  Women  are  therefore  kept 


THE    GERMAN    STANDARD.  245 

in  the  profession  unless  they  quit  it  for  matrimony, 
while  men  are  easily  withdrawn  from  it.  Most  of 
the  able  public-school  teachers  whom  I  have  known 
in  years  past,  of  the  male  sex,  are  now  clergymen 
or  lawyers,  while  many  of  the  ablest  women  are  still 
teaching. 

There  remains  the  assumption  that  women,  as 
women,  are  ordinarily  less  well  trained  for  teaching 
than  men  would  be  —  certainly  than  German  men. 
This  disadvantage  as  to  training  did  undoubtedly 
exist  in  times  past,  and  it  is  still  found  in  small 
country  hamlets,  where  the  teachers  are  often  young 
women  trained  only  in  the  schools  of  the  village. 
But  the  disproportion  of  educational  facilities  is  di- 
minishing every  day.  With  the  Normal  Schools  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  colleges  admitting  women  on 
the  other,  there  is  a  rapid  equalization  going  on.  In 
many  of  our  Normal  Schools  there  is  now  a  four 
years'  course  ;  the  books,  apparatus,  and  teaching 
are  all  of  the  best :  if  Germany  is  the  standard,  the 
teachers  have  often  been  trained  in  Germany ;  and 
with  the  women's  colleges  it  is  much  the  same.  The 
grade  is  steadily  rising  as  to  the  higher  education 
of  women.  In  Massachusetts  about  one-fourth  of 
the  public-school  teachers  are  graduates  of  Normal 
Schools,  and  nearly  one -third  have  attended  such 
schools — while  of  the  number  who  are  college  gradu- 
ates no  statistics  are  given.  Should  men  again  re- 


246  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

place  women  in  these  schools  there  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  they  would  surpass  the  present  teachers 
in  respect  to  education.  It  is  certain  that  the  aver- 
age male  teacher  of  forty  years  ago  was  inferior  in 
this  respect  to  the  average  woman  teacher  of  to-day. 
Tried,  therefore,  even  by  the  German  standard, 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  present  ar- 
rangements as  to  teaching  force  in  our  schools  could 
be  materially  bettered,  with  the  materials  now  at 
command.  But  I  am  not  afraid  to  go  one  step  fur- 
ther 5ind  raise  the  question  whether  the  German 
standard  is  absolute  and  final.  I  travelled  once  on 
the  Rhine  with  a  highly  educated  German,  long  res- 
ident in  England,  who  used  to  say,  when  we  saw  the 
groups  of  demure  little  boys  and  girls  going  to 
school  at  eight  in  the  morning,  with  their  knapsacks 
of  books  on  their  shoulders,  "  That  is  what  is  stupe- 
fying the  German  nation  ;  they  arc  being  drilled  to 
death  ;  they  have  no  games,  no  lively  sports,  no  vi- 
vacity; one  wide-awake  English  school-boy  is  worth 
the  whole  of  them."  He  had  never  been  in  Ameri- 
ca; but  we,  who  find  the  English  children  dull  and 
slow  to  mature,  compared  with  Americans,  can  make 
the  needful  addition  to  his  statement.  No  one  can 
deny  the  sure  tendency  of  the  German  training  to 
produce  thorough  investigators  and  admirable  ana- 
lysts ;  but,  after  all,  our  system,  with  all  its  faults, 
produces  mental  alertness,  and  theirs  does  not. 


THE    GERMAN   STANDARD.  247 

Compare  an  American  boy  at  eighteen  with  a  Ger- 
man or  even  an  English  boy  of  the  same  age  ;  which 
is  it  that  has  originality,  impulse,  initiative  ?  That 
quality  which  makes  us  develop  early  and  assume 
leadership  while  others  arc  under  tutelage  seems  in- 
grain in  the  transplanted  race. 

In  writing  on  the  history  of  the  old  Salem  (Mas- 
sachusetts) sea-captains  the  other  day,  I  was  amazed 
to  discover  the  youthfulness  of  the  men  whose  dar- 
ing adventure  created  that  vast  East  India  trade 
which  for  a  few  years  astonished  the  world.  These 
men  penetrated  into  unknown  and  ch artless  seas, 
opened  new  channels  of  commerce,  defied  treach- 
erous natives  and  ruthless  pirates,  baffled  England 
and  France  during  the  wars  of  Napoleon ;  yet  they 
were  almost  always  under  twenty-five,  often  under 
twenty-one.  Captain  Richard  J.  Cleveland  sailed  on 
a  dangerous  voyage  when  neither  he  nor  his  first  nor 
second  mate  was  of  voting  age.  An  American  sys- 
tem of  education  has  to  adapt  itself  to  this  precocity 
of  type.  Moreover,  it  has  to  train  to  action  as  well 
as  to  learning;  and,  for  something  midway  between 
learning  and  action,  it  has  to  train  to  the  power  of 
expression.  Here  is  where  the  German  system  stops 
short ;  the  German  scholar  obtains  vast  knowledge, 
but  he  ordinarily  does  it  as  a  hewer  of  wood  and 
drawer  of  water,  until  the  cultivated  French  or  Eng- 
lish or  American  mind  has  applied  to  it  the  art  of 


248  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

expression.  For  the  philological  study  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  classics,  for  instance,  one  must  go  to  Ger- 
many ;  but  you  may  explore  a  whole  alcove  of  Ger- 
man editions  and  not  gain  so  much  of  the  peculiar 
aroma  of  Greek  literature  as  you  can  obtain  from 
Ampere's  "  Grecc,  Rome,  et  Dante,"  or  from  Matthew 
Arnold's"  Essay  on  Translating  Homer,"  or  from  our 
own  Professor  Palmer's  extraordinary  version  of  the 
"  Odyssey  "  in  rhythmic  prose.  For  one,  I  do  not  ask 
for  a  mere  reproduction  of  German  methods  until 
Germany  itself  is  broadened  and  revivified. 


XLIX. 
THE  MISSING  MUSICAL  WOMAN. 

THERE  is  just  now  a  revival  of  the  anxious  in- 
quiry after  an  eminent  composer  of  music  among 
women.  Mr.  Upton,  in  a  book  upon  the  subject, 
and  Mr.  Upton's  numerous  critics,  are  all  discussing 
the  matter  with  eager  interest,  and  give  a  great  many 
ingenious  reasons  for  what  is,  to  careful  students  of 
the  intellectual  history  of  woman,  a  very  simple  af- 
fair. Such  students  are  usually  brought  to  the  con- 
viction that  the  difference  between  the  sexes  in  point 
of  intellect  is  not  a  question  of  comparative  quanti- 
ty or  quality,  but  simply  of  time.  It  is  a  matter  of 
acceleration  and  retardation.  In  all  arts,  for  certain 
reasons  not  hard  to  discover,  the  eminence  of  women 
is  a  later  historical  development  than  that  of  men. 
It  is  one  of  those  "  precious  things  discovered  late," 
of  which  Tennyson  writes;  and  this  tardiness  would 
certainly  be  provoking  had  it  not  come  to  pass,  un- 
der the  doctrine  of  evolution,  that  the  latest  things 
are  apt  to  be  recognized  as  the  most  precious  through- 
out all  nature.  Up  to  the  time  of  George  Sand  or 
George  Eliot  it  had  not  seemed  possible  that  a  worn- 


250  WOMEN    AND    MEX. 

an  could  be  a  great  novelist,  or  up  to  the  time  of 
Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  that  she  could  be  a 
great  poet,  or  up  to  the  time  of  Rosa  Bonheur  a 
great  painter,  or  up  to  the  days  of  Mrs.  Siddons  and 
Rachel  a  great  actor,  or  until  Mrs.  Somerville's  day 
a  great  scientific  writer.  Even  to  the  present  time, 
for  some  reason,  the  corresponding  figure  among 
musical  composers  has  not  appeared,  and  any  specu- 
lations on  this  point  may  have  a  certain  value. 
Of  course  some  particular  sphere  must  come  last  in 
women's  successive  advances,  and  it  is  interesting  to 
inquire  why  that  sphere  should  be  music.  But  the 
inquiry  should  always  proceed  in  connection  with 
such  facts  as  those  already  stated — facts  indicating 
that  it  is  not  at  all  a  ease  of  proved  incapacity,  but 
only  of  admitted  delay. 

The  general  cause  of  the  delay,  in  all  these  cases, 
is  essentially  the  same:  it  lies  partly  in  specific  dis- 
advantages and  partly  in  general  repression.  Wom- 
en have  never  yet  been  trained  on  any  large  scale, 
as  men  are  trained,  in  the  science  of  music.  They 
have  been  and  still  arc  trained  as  amateurs  only  ;  and 
I  can  distinctly  remember  when  the  study  of  har- 
mony or  counterpoint  was  considered  as  clearly  un- 
womanly as  that  of  Greek.  Where,  in  spite  of  this, 
a  woman  came  of  a  musical  stock,  and  showed  posi- 
tive marks  of  genius,  she  was  still  held  to  a  sub- 
ordinate and  almost  suppressed  position — as  in  the 


THE    MISSING   MUSICAL    WOMAN.  251 

striking  case  of  Fanny  Mendelssohn,  who  was  only 
encouraged  by  her  family  to  compose  so  long  as  her 
beautiful  compositions  passed  under  her  brother's 
name  and  helped  to  swell  his  fame.  When  she  pro- 
posed to  publish  for  herself,  she  was  regarded  by  her 
family  as  unscxing  herself.  Is  that  the  way  genius 
is  developed  among  men  ?  Genius  in  men  is  watched 
for,  helped,  trained,  supported,  furnished  with  prizes 
and  incentives.  The  fact  that  we  give  it  all  these 
aids  is  proof  that  genius  needs  them;  withdraw  the 
aids,  and  it  suffers,  or  if  it  excels  it  will  be  still  at  a 
great  disadvantage,  and  fall  short  of  its  full  success. 
High  English  scientific  authority  has  said  that  we 
never  shall  know  how  much  science  lost  by  the  al- 
most total  early  neglect  of  the  rare  powers  of  Mary 
Somcrvillc.  We  know  as  little  what  the  musical 
world  lost  by  the  domestic  repression  of  Fanny  Men- 
delssohn. We  do  not  even  know,  as  the  latest  biog- 
rapher of  the  family  admits,  which  of  her  brother's 
published  "Songs  without  Words  "  she  composed. 
It  may  have  been  the  very  finest,  and  her  genius 
may  have  been  intrinsically  greater  than  his. 

Mr.  Upton  gives  us  a  list  of  four  women  compos- 
ers in  the  seventeenth  century,  twenty-seven  in  the 
eighteenth,  and  seventeen  in  the  nineteenth.  It  is 
an  obvious  and  significant  fact  that  most  of  these 
are  German  ;  and  here  we  have  a  further  suggestion 
as  to  the  backwardness  of  women  in  music.  The 


252  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

great  musical  nation  of  the  world  is  also  the  civil- 
ized nation  where  the  relative  intellectual  position  of 
woman  is  lowest,  and  where  she  shares  least  in  the 
current  educational  advantages  of  all  kinds.  Among 
the  eminent  women  above  enumerated  as  pioneers 
in  other  intellectual  spheres  not  one  was  German  ; 
we  do  not  know  that  George  Sand,  or  George  Eliot, 
or  Mrs.  Browning,  or  Rosa  Bonhcur,  or  Rachel,  or 
Mrs.  Somerville,  would  ever  have  raised  her  head 
above  the  surrounding  obstacles  had  she  had  the  ill- 
luck  to  be  born  near  the  Rhine.  Even  in  France 
there  is  no  Salique  Law  in  intellect;  compare,  for 
instance,  the  five  ample  volumes  of  "  Ilistoire  Litte- 
raire  des  Femmcs  Franchises,"  published  by  a  Societe 
do  Gens  do  Lettrcs  as  early  as  1769,  with  any  simi- 
lar work  in  German.  Had  England  or  France  been 
a  great  musical  nation,  the  opportunities  of  women 
in  this  respect  would  have  been  far  greater  than 
they  are  to-day. 

It  is  a  comfort  to  know  that,  even  in  Germany, 
if  women  have  not  composed  great  music  in  their 
own  names,  they  have  at  least,  so  to  speak,  composed 
the  composers — through  their  influence  on  them — 
and  thus  fulfilled  what  Cotton  Mather  thought  the 
high  function  of  the  president  of  a  university — .to 
train  those  who  were  to  train  others — non  lapides 
dolarc,  sed  archttectos.  Thus  Beethoven,  who  never 
married,  but  was  twice  rejected,  dedicated  thirty- 


THE    MISSING    MUSICAL    WOMAX.  253 

nine  compositions  to  thirty-six  different  women,  and 
Schumann  almost  as  many  ;  while  most  of  the  great 
composers  were  also  ardent  lovers,  and  sometimes 
only  too  versatile  in  their  love  affairs.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  learn  also  from  Mr.  Upton  that  while  women 
have  been  inferior  to  men  as  instrumental  perform- 
ers, they  have  quite  surpassed  them  as  singers — the 
list  of  women  renowned  as  vocalists  being  both 
lono-er  and  weightier  than  that  of  men. 


THE  BRUTALITY  OF  "  PUNCH  AND  JUDY." 

WHENEVER  the  season  of  picnics  and  children's 
excursions  draws  near,  I  feel  disposed  to  renew  my 
protest  against  a  performance  which  has  only  crossed 
the  Atlantic  within  some  twenty  years,  and  which  has 
in  some  inexplicable  way  crept  into  decent  society. 
I  mean  "  Punch  and  Judy."  It  is  an  exhibition  only 
fitted  to  be  shown,  as  it.  seems  to  me,  before  the 
children  of  prize-fighters  or  cock -fighters.  It  is 
something  that  could  only  have  originated,  in  its 
present  form,  among  a  race  of  very  coarse  fibre, 
which  the  English  stock  unquestionably  is  ;  and 
now  that  a  more  refined  race  is  being  developed 
from  this  parent  stem,  it  is  a  shame  to  transplant 
its  very  coarsest  amusements.  No  sane  parent  would 
paper  a  child's  bedroom  with  representations  of  mur- 
ders and  executions  from  the  Police  Gazette ;  and 
yet  the  exhibition  of  "Punch  and  Judy  "  offers  this 
and  nothing  more,  and  docs  it  in  the  more  per- 
nicious form  of  action  instead  of  picture.  From 
beginning  to  end  the  performance  has  not  one  re- 
deeming:  trait.  All  the  fun  lies  in  the  fact  that 


THE    BRUTALITY    OF    "  PUNCH    AND    JUDY."     255 

Punch  successively  knocks  on  the  head  or  other- 
wise slaughters  his  baby,  his  wife,  the  doctor,  the 
policeman,  the  servant,  and  such  others  as  the  vary- 
ing ingenuity  of  the  operator  may  introduce;  that 
he  counts  the  corpses  over,~Tiustles  them  about,  and 
stuffs  them  into  coffins  with  every  form  of  irrev- 
erence ;  that  for  these  offences  lie  is  haunted  by 
ghosts,  executed  by  hangmen,  and  dragged  down  by 
demons.  It  is  not  strange  that  there  should  be  city 
precincts  so  degraded  that  this  sort  of  thing  should 
just  meet  the  public  taste.  In  the  old-time  Seven 
Dials  of  London,  or  Five  Points  of  New  York,  it 
might  seem  at  home,  and  perhaps  be  regarded  as  a 
moral  exhibition.  The  strange  thing  is  that  it  should 
be  selected  by  refined  and  high-minded  parents  for 
the  delectation  of  innocent  children  amid  the  roses 
and  perfumes  of  summer  gardens. 

How  far  it  directly  harms  these  children  it  is  im- 
possible to  say.  We  all  know  that  such  young  peo- 
ple can  see  a  great  deal  of  evil  pass  before  their  eyes 
without  being  really  reached  by  it.  The  story  of 
the  little  boy  who  throttled  his  baby  brother  by 
trying  to  apply  the  noose  like  Punch's  hangman 
may  or  may  not  be  correct.  It  has  never  been 
proved  that  the  children  of  butchers  were  more  bru- 
tal than  those  of  other  people;  but  no  thoughtful 
person  would  wish  to  bring  up  his  family  at  the 
next  door  to  an  abattoir.  And  surely  Punch  should 


256  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

be  avoided  on  the  same  principle.  It  seems  impos- 
sible that  such  a  show  should  not  insensibly  vul- 
garize a  child's  pure  mind.  The  last  time  I  took 
a  child  to  see  it  —  its  detestable  features  having 
grown  dim  in  my  mind — I  found  by  comparison 
that  all  the  parents  present  felt  very  much  as  I  did, 
and  only  consoled  themselves  with  the  thought  that 
the  little  things  "did  not  understand."  But  they 
did  understand.  A  child  under  five  narrated  the 
whole  thing  with  animation  after  reaching  home — 
the  only  things  she  did  not  comprehend,  from  never 
having  seen  or  heard  of  them  before,  being  the  ghost, 
the  hangman,  and  the  demon.  Should  she  go  again 
— which  she  will  not  if  I  can  help  it — she  will  soon 
be  coarsely  introduced  to  those  also,  and  begin  to 
dream  about  them,  perhaps,  in  the  slumbers  that 
follow. 

I  do  not  wish  to  put  all  the  blame  of  "  Punch  and 
Judy"  on  our  English  ancestors,  for  it  is  much  older 
than  they.  The  very  figure  of  this  hero  was  famil- 
iar on  the  Roman  stage,  and  an  ancient  statuette  has 
been  found  which  represents  him  essentially  as  now. 
The  play  is  not  much  coarser  than  some  of  the  old 
mystery  plays  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  and  the  very 
name  is  by  some  supposed  to  have  come  from  Pon- 
tius cum  Judceis  —  Pontius  Pilate  with  the  Jews. 
The  drama  itself  is  Italian,  and  belongs  to  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  where  it  had  a  highly  spiritual 


THE  BRUTALITY  OF  "  PUNCH  AND  JUDY."  257 

conclusion  and  a  moral  bearing.  The  English  ver- 
sion strikes  off  all  these  redeeming  traits,  and  the 
American  is  worse  than  the  English.  For  instance, 
the  English  performance  has  usually  a  little  dog 
(Toby)  added,  the  only  live  member  of  the  dramatis 
personce,  and  the  only  decent  one,  his  worst  offence 
being  to  leap  up  and  snap  at  everybody's  nose.  The 
noses  being  only  those  of  puppets,  this  can  hardly 
be  counted  as  a  moral  offence ;  and  the  shouts  of 
laughter  it  excites  are  at  least  innocent.  But  our 
ordinary  performances  of  "Punch  and  Judy"  ex- 
hibit nobody  so  alive  and  so  harmless  as  a  real  pup- 
py ;  it  is  one  dreary  scries  of  quarrels  and  fights, 
and  proceedings  that  would  be  very  bloodthirsty  ex- 
cept that  there  is  no  blood.  It  is  a  wonder  that 
some  more  artistic  Punch  docs  not  provide  this  too. 
As  our  children  go  through  the  world  they  must 
necessarily  make  acquaintance  with  brutality  and  sin 
and  wrong ;  but  this  should  never  be  done  in  the 
way  of  joke,  any  more  than  we  should  wish  them 
to  laugh  at  the  spectacle  of  a  drunken  man.  Up 
to  a  certain  point  ignorance  is  the  best  shield ;  and 
beyond  that  point  there  should  be  serious  disap- 
proval, not  uproarious  laughter.  The  Spartans  used 
to  make  their  Ilelots  intoxicated,  not  for  the  amuse- 
ment of  their  children,  but  for  their  abhorrence ; 
that  the  latter  should  become  disgusted  with  excess, 
and  so  avoid  it.  It  was  a  questionable  process,  but 
17 


258  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

a  serious  one.  It  may  have  coarsened  the  young 
observers,  but  it  did  not  pervert  them.  Our  ten- 
dency is  rather  to  take  evil  too  lightly  when  shown 
to  the  young ;  and  this,  whether  it  be  licentiousness, 
as  on  the  French  stage,  or  brutality,  as  in  "  Punch 
and  Judy,"  involves  a  deeper  danger  —  that  such 
things  may  not  only  grow  familiar  as  a  spectacle, 
but  as  a  joke. 


LT. 

WHY   WOMEN   AUTHORS  \VRITE   UNDER 
THE  NAMES  OF  MEN. 

THE  dapper  clerk,  Mr.  Chuckster,  in  the  "Old  Ca- 
riosity Shop,"  is  quite  dissatisfied  when  Kit  Nubbles 
is  proved  innocent  of  theft ;  and  remarks  that  al- 
though the  boy  did  not  happen  to  take  that  partic- 
ular five-pound  note,  he  is  no  doubt  always  up  to 
something  or  other  of  that  kind.  It  is  in  this  way 
that  critics  of  a  certain  type  contrive  to  console 
themselves,  when  a  woman  lias  done  a  good  thing 
in  literature,  by  pointing  out  the  number  of  good 
things  she  has  not  yet  done.  To  be  sure,  Miss  Mary 
N.  Murf  ree,  when  she  was  universally  supposed  to  bear 
the  name  of  Charles  Egbert  Craddock,  was  thought 
to  have  achieved  creditable  work;  but  this  discov- 
ery only  gives  these  critics  opportunity  to  point  out 
that  had  she  tried  various  other  things  she  might 
have  failed  in  them.  Can  anybody  positively  say, 
for  instance,  that  she  would  have  written  a  good 
essay  on  Quaternions,  or  developed  any  especially 
searching  views  on  the  Wages  Fund  ?  If  not,  her 
success  does  no  more  credit  to  woman,  in  the  opin- 


260  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

ion  of  these  critics,  than  Kit's  not  happening  to  take 
that  particular  five-pound  note  did  to  his  honesty. 
"Just  wait  a  while,"  they  say,  "and  you  will  sec 
some  woman  fail  in  something,  never  fear."  One 
critic  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  all  "  high  creative 
work"  still  remains  out  of  the  reach  of  woman. 
"Itomola"  does  not  seem  to  such  a  critic  to  he  high 
creative  work,  probably ;  that  phrase  should  be  re- 
served for  men — for  little  Twiggs,  perhaps,  with  his 
fine  realistic  stud}',  "The  Trippings  of  Tom  Popin- 
jay." 

What  a  flood  of  light  all  this  throws  on  the  rea- 
sons why  such  very  able  women  write  under  mascu- 
line names !  George  Sand,  Currer  Bell,  George  El- 
iot, are  but  the  type  of  many  others.  They  wrote 
in  that  way  not  because  they  wished  to  be  men,  but 
because  they  wished  for  an  unbiassed  judgment  as 
artists;  and  in  each  case  they  got  it.  When  it 
came,  and  in  the  form  of  triumphant  success,  all 
women  were  benefited  by  it,  and  were  so  much  near- 
er to  a  time  when  no  such  experiment  of  disguise 
would  be  needed.  The  mere  fact  that  women  take 
men's  names  in  writing,  while  no  man  takes  a  wom- 
an's, shows  that  an  advantage  is  gained  by  the  proc- 
ess. Meantime,  each  particular  success  is  called  ex- 
ceptional, and  instead  of  rejoicing  in  it  in  a  manly 
way,  the  critic  of  the  other  sex  is  very  apt  to  ex- 
ult in  what  it  does  not  prove  rather  than  in  what 


WHY  WOMEN  WRITE   UNDER  MEN'S  NAMES.     261 

it  proves.  It  is  as  if  we  were  watching  a  Chinese 
woman  trying  to  walk  in  spite  of  her  bandaged  feet. 
"True,  she  has  just  walked  into  the  north-east  cor- 
ner of  the  room  ;  but,  mind  yon,  she  will  never  get 
into  the  south-east  corner — she  cannot  do  it;  and 
even  if  she  does,  there  is  all  the  rest  of  the  room  !" 
The  more  rational  inference  would  seem  to  be  that 
if  one  point  of  the  compass  was  not  too  much  for 
her,  it  would  only  be  a  question  of  time  when  she 
would  reach  all  the  rest. 

When  Mrs.  Somervillc  wrote  her  "  Mechanism  of 
the  Heavens,"  critics  of  this  description  admitted  that 
she  had  proved,  indeed,  that  women  could  master 
astronomy  after  a  fashion,  but  probably  chemis- 
try would  be  beyond  them.  When  Rosa  Bonheur 
painted  cattle  it  was  remarked  that  probably  she 
could  not  have  painted  men  as  well  if  she  had  tried. 
Then  came  Elizabeth  Thompson  in  England,  and 
painted  men  fighting — actual  battle-pieces — and  the 
critics  turned  round  and  wondered  if  she  could  de- 
lineate men  at  rest.  No  matter  what  a  clever  wom- 
an does,  the  stupidest  man  has  always  discernment 
enough  to  think  of  something  that  she  has  not 
done;  and  if,  step  by  step,  women  held  their  own 
in  every  conceivable  department  except  in  writing 
treatises  on  whist  or  backgammon,  then  it  would 
suddenly  be  discovered  that  whist  and  backgammon 
were  the  inaccessible  climax  of  human  intellect,  and 


262  WOMEN    AND    MEX. 

that  in  that  sacred  region  no  woman  need  apply. 
After  all,  with  due  respect  to  the  great  masculine  in- 
tellect, does  not  all  this  seem  a  little  silly  ? 

Why  not  simply  reason  about  woman's  intellect 
as  we  should  about  every  other  case  of  gradual  de- 
velopment? For  some  reason  or  other,  mere  phys- 
ical size  had  priority  on  this  planet — first  the  reptile 
one  hundred  feet  long,  then  the  man  six  feet  long. 
This  great  change  made,  it  seems  credible  that  even 
the  woman,  who  is  only  five  feet  long,  may  not  be 
wholly  crushed  by  her  smallness,  but  may  have  her 
place  in  the  universe.  As,  by  the  modern  theory, 
man  is  gradually  developed  out  of  utter  ignorance, 
so  is  she,  but,  for  some  reason  or  other,  more  slowly. 
It  is  but  yesterday  that  her  brain  was  regarded  with 
contempt;  but  yesterday  that  it  was  held  worth 
educating.  How  should  she  develop  confidence  in 
it  all  at  once?  We  know  nothing  of  the  laws  that 
occasionally  bring  out  genius  in  men — that  create  a 
Shakespeare,  for  instance — and  in  her  case  we  know 
still  less.  We  only  know  that  slowly,  at  long  in- 
tervals, and  in  spite  of  all  the  obvious  disadvantages 
of  physical  weakness,  social  discouragement,  and  in- 
sufficient education,  she  is  beginning  to  do,  here  and 
there,  what  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  first-class  in- 
tellectual work. 

Until  within  a  century  but  one  single  instance  of 
this  success  was  recorded — that  of  Sappho,  in  lyric 


WHY  WOMEN  WRITE   UNDER  MEN\S  NAMES.     263 

poetry.  Within  the  last  century  other  instances 
have  followed — Rachel  in  dramatic  art,  Rosa  Bon- 
henr  in  animal  painting-,  George  Sand  and  George 
Eliot  in  prose  fiction.  These  cases  are  unquestion- 
able. Other  women  have  at  least  reached  a  second- 
ary place  in  other  spheres  —  as  Mrs.  Somerville  in 
science,  Harriet  Martineau  in  political  economy, 
Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  in  poetry.  The  infer- 
ence would  seem  natural  that  it  is  simply  a  case  of 
slower  development — a  thing  not  at  all  discouraging 
in  a  world  where  evolution  reigns,  and  the  last  comer 
generally  wins.  Meanwhile,  as  there  is  no  profes- 
sion— not  even  the  stage — in  which  a  woman  is  not 
still  a  little  handicapped,  it  is  natural  that  she  should 
disguise  her  work  as  man's  work;  and  that  Miss 
Murfrce  should  find  complete  shelter  under  the  very 
misleading  name  of  Charles  Egbert  Craddock. 


LII. 
THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  DOLLS. 

IT  is  a  very  instructive  fact  that  two  of  the  best 
mothers  I  know — and  mothers,  it  must  be  added, 
on  the  largest  scale  —  have  had  their  preliminary 
training  solely  through  the  charge  of  dolls.  I  vis- 
ited lately  the  nursery  of  one  of  these  mothers, 
arranged  as  the  collective  play-room  of  six  children 
under  ten — there  being  also  three  older  offspring 
who  have  graduated  from  this  play-room,  and  are 
in  a  manner  launched  into  the  world  outside.  In 
this  room  everything  is  provided  by  wholesale — 
whole  freight-trains  of  toy-wagons,  wooden  horses 
enough  for  all  to  ride  at  once,  and  four  hundred 
blocks  for  purposes  of  architecture.  Here  the  six 
play  perpetually  together  while  they  are  in-doors; 
and  when  peace  is  interrupted  by  discord,  and  there 
is  a  momentary  tendency  among  the  younger  mem- 
bers to  pull  each  other's  hair — hair,  it  must  be  said, 
so  curly  that  it  seems  almost  a  waste  of  the  bless- 
ings of  Providence  not  to  pull  it  occasionally — the 
tranquil  mother,  wisely  remembering  that  most  of 
the  ill-temper  of  children  cornes  from  the  stomach, 


THE    DISCIPLINE    OF    DOLLS.  205 

sends  the  little  things  down  -  stairs  for  a  glass  of 
Mellin's  Food,  and  they  come  back  beaming  and 
reconciled.  Yet  this  pattern  mother,  conducting 
without  a  nurse  this  large  world  of  little  beings, 
tells  me  that  she  grew  up  not  only  without  younger 
brothers  and  sisters,  but  without  knowledge  of 
young  children.  Up  to  the  time  of  her  marriage, 
at  twenty-two,  she  has  no  recollection  of  ever  hav- 
ing taken  any  care  of  a  child.  What,  then,  pre- 
pared her  for  this  vast  sphere  of  duty,  this  rearing 
of  nine  young  immortals  upon  no  severer  pains 
and  penalties  than  Mellin's  Food  ?  It  was,  she  as- 
sures me,  the  discipline  of  dolls. 

Up  to  the  age  of  thirteen  her  experience  with 
dolls  was  on  the  very  largest  scale.  She  had  seldom 
less  than  twenty,  each  with  its  own  wardrobe,  orna- 
ments, and  possessions;  Every  night  of  her  life  the 
twenty  dolls  were  undressed  and  put  to  bed  before 
their  mistress  went ;  and  all  their  clothes  were  neat- 
ly folded  and  put  away  separately.  During  the  day, 
doubtless,  each  doll  had  its  own  career  and  position  ; 
was  fed  at  table,  fitted  with  new  clothes,  elevated 
into  grandeur  or  repressed  into  humbleness.  When 
their  young  mistress  grew  up  they  were  doubtless 
laid  aside,  or  transferred  to  other  children,  or  ban- 
ished to  that  dusty  purgatory  of  the  garret  from 
which  no  doll  is  ever  translated  to  paradise.  I  for- 
get whether  Hans  Andersen  has  ever  duly  chronicled 


266  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

the  tragedy  that  lies  at  the  end  of  every  doll's  life; 
it  is  worse  than  that  of  any  other  pet.  An  old 
horse  is  often  tended,  an  aged  dog  is  at  least  shot, 
but  an  old  doll  is  left  to  lie  forever  on  its  back  in 
the  garret,  gazing  with  one  remaining  eye  on  the 
slowly  gathering  cobwebs  above  it.  At  any  rate, 
the  lady  I  describe  was,  after  an  interval  of  some 
ten  years,  reassigned  to  the  duty  that  had  absorbed 
her  in  girlhood — only  this  time  the  dolls  were  alive. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  were  fewer  of  them — only 
nine  —  and  they  were,  and  are,  even  more  interest- 
ing, as  I  can  testify,  than  the  dolls.  Her  experience 
reminded  me  of  that  of  another  mother  whose  eight 
children  are  now  practically  grown  up,  and  whose 
early  training  was  much  the  same.  She  too  had 
little  to  do  with  children  in  her  youth  ;  but  her  only 

sister  once  said  to  me,  "  I  always  knew  that 

would  be  a  good  mother.  When  we  had  paper 
dolls,  she  always  knew  just  where  each  one  was,  and 
what  clothes  it  needed.  She  manages  her  children 
just  as  she  did  her  paper  dolls." 

How  curious  is  this  world  of  dolls  ! — uncouth  and 
savage  in  Alaska,  quaint  in  Japan,  strong  and  solidly 
built  in  Germany,  graceful  in  Paris.  You  can  tell 
German  dolls  from  French,  it  is  said,  by  the  greater 
clumsiness  of  the  extremities ;  no  matter  how  pretty 
the  face,  the  feet  and  ankles  are  those  of  a  peasant. 
In  both  countries,  I  believe,  artificers  visit  the  rural 


THE    DISCIPLINE    OF    DOLLS.  267 

villages  to  study  new  faces  for  their  dolls,  as  in  an- 
cient Greece  the  sculptors  travelled  about  the  coun- 
try looking  for  beautiful  forms.  Everywhere  the 
doll  is  to  the  child  the  symbol  of  humanity — the  first 
object  of  responsibility,  the  type  of  what  is  lovable, 
the  model  on  which  the  dawning  parental  instinct 
practises  itself.  The  little  girl  does  not  know  the 
faults  and  virtues  of  her  own  temperament  until  this 
ideal  creature  brings  them  out,  being  now  tended 
with  the  sweetest  care,  now  flung  vehemently  into  an 
undeserved  corner.  It  is  all  imaginary,  no  doubt, 
but  much  of  our  sensibility  lies  in  the  imagination ; 
the  woes  we  relieve  are  those  we  vividly  picture  to 
ourselves.  Children  will  sometimes  cry  when  the 
doll  is  pricked  in  sewing  on  a  dress,  or  is  forgotten 
Avhen  she  should  be  placed  at  the  window  to  see  the 
procession  go  by.  The  sorrow  is  fantastic,  but  the 
thoughtful  sympathy  is  real.  Whoever  listens  in 
the  nursery  will  hear  all  the  problems  of  ethics  re- 
hearsed upon  this  mimic  stage  of  the  doll's  house. 
In  the  travelling  diary  of  a  child  of  eight,  written 
literally  from  her  own  dictation  for  her  absent  fa- 
ther, the  important  events  of  the  pilgrimage  were 
always  shared  by  the  doll.  "  When  we  got  to  Nice, 
I  was  sick.  The  next  morning  the  doctor  came, 
and  he  said  I  had  something  that  was  very  much  like 
scarlet-fever.  Then  I  had  Annie  [a  sister]  take  care 
of  baby  [the  doll],  and  keep  her  away,  for  I  was 


268  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

afraid  she  would  get  the  fever.  She  used  to  cry  to 
come  to  me,  but  I  knew  it  wouldn't  be  good  for  her." 
To  a  child  thus  imaginative  and  thus  faithful  this 
was  an  absolute  rehearsal  of  motherhood.  When 
Christmas  came,  it  appears  from  the  diary  that 
"  baby  "  hung  up  her  stocking  with  the  rest.  She 
had  a  slate  with  a  real  pencil,  a  travelling  shawl 
with  a  strap,  and  a  cap  with  ruffles.  "  I  found 
baby  with  the  cap  on  early  in  the  morning,  and  she 
was  so  pleased  that  she  almost  jumped  out  of  my 
arms."  At  the  Colosseum,  at  St,  Peter's,  baby  was 
of  the  party.  "  I  used  to  take  her  to  hear  the  band, 
in  the  carriage,  and  she  went  everywhere  I  did." 
This  tenderest  of  parents  was,  of  course,  a  girl ;  yet 
boys  take  their  share  of  it,  in  a  more  robust  and  in- 
termittent way,  and  will  sometimes  carry  the  doll  to 
bed  or  to  breakfast  as  eagerly  as  girls.  The  love  of 
dolls  with  both  sexes  is  a  variable  thing,  perhaps  de- 
layed unaccountably  or  interrupted  by  long  intervals 
of  indifference.  At  any  rate,  it  is  the  rehearsing  of 
the  most  momentous  part  of  human  life — that  which 
carries  on  from  one  generation  to  another  the  sacred 
fire  of  human  affection.  Where  the  doll  ends  the 
child  begins;  or,  as  an  author  has  said,  "  In  a  nursery 
the  youngest  child  is  something  more  than  a  doll, 
and  the  doll  is  a  little  less  than  a  child." 


LIII. 
SANTA  CLAUS  AGENCIES. 

No  one  seems  as  yet  to  recognize  that  if  Santa 
Glaus  is  to  continue  in  the  field,  he  absolutely  needs 
agents  and  auxiliaries.  With  the  increasing  wealth 
of  the  community  and  the  growing  complications  of 
shopping,  the  mere  ordinary  preparation  of  Christ- 
mas presents  is  becoming  a  very  arduous  matter. 
For  many  well-to-do  households,  especially  in  the 
suburbs  of  large  cities,  it  absorbs  an  alarming  amount 
of  time  and  strength,  even  endangering,  in  many 
cases,  health  itself.  The  Christmas  trade,  which 
formerly  kept  the  retail  shops  crowded  for  a  week, 
now  fills  and  overfills  them  for  nearly  six  weeks,  and 
during  December  the  simplest  purchase  involves  such 
confusion  and  difficulty  as  to  take  hours  instead  of 
minutes,  and  to  drive  even  experienced  shoppers  to 
despair.  Many  a  family  seriously  contemplates  each 
year  the  alternative  of  foregoing  all  Christmas  pres- 
ents, rather  than  grapple  with  the  formidable  task 
involved.  There  are  the  children's  stockings  to  be 
filled,  something  really  pretty  and  appropriate  to  be 
got  for  Uncle  John,  and  just  the  right  thing  to  be 


270  WOJUEX    AND    MEX. 

selected  for  that  unsatisfactory  corner  in  Cousin 
Mary's  drawing-room.  Day  after  day  passes ;  nobody 
can  find  time  to  go  to  the  city,  or,  if  some  one  goes, 
it  is  dark  before  she  has  got  half-way  down  her  list 
of  errands.  At  the  end,  Cousin  Mary's  awkward 
corner  remains  unfilled,  the  children's  stockings  are 
stuffed  bap-hazard,  and  Uncle  John  gets  only  a  third 
smoking-cap,  though  he  took  pains  to  explain  last 
year  that  the  doctor  had  ordered  him  to  quit  smok- 
ing. 

I  am  surprised  that  some  enterprising  woman 
does  not  see  how  clearly  all  this  makes  a  provi- 
dential opening  for  Santa  Clans  agencies.  In  many 
other  departments  we  do  not  now  go  to  purchase 
articles  needed ;  they  are  brought  to  us.  Instead 
of  our  going  to  market  the  market-man  rings  daily 
at  the  back  door,  and  orders  arc  taken  and  filled  for 
chickens  and  celery,  canned  tomatoes  or  Ilubbard 
squashes.  If  we  wish  new  window -curtains,  the 
upholsterer  comes  with  plans,  patterns,  and  prices. 
Why  does  not  some  agent  for  Santa  Claus  come 
in  the  same  way  with  samples,  circulars,  and  above 
all,  suggestions  ?  What  a  boon  to  many  a  strug- 
gling family  would  be  the  sudden  arrival  at  the 
door  of  some  competent  and  clear-headed  woman, 
replete  with  information,  running  over  with  meas- 
urements and  prices,  and  carrying  specimens  of  a 
hundred  unthouo-ht-of  treasures  in  a  little  hand- 


SANTA   CLAUS    AGENCIES.  271 

bag  !  She  must  have  all  the  resources  of  all  the 
shops  in  her  memory;  must  be  learned  in  lace, 
competent  in  china,  and  an  encyclopaedia  as  to  rugs. 
She  must  be  an  embodied  Lilliputian  Bazaar  in  re- 
gard to  children's  clothes  and  toys.  She  must  be 
as  comprehensive  in  her  aptitudes  as  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  imaginary  Israelite,  who  was  prepared  to 
trade  for  a  pennyworth  or  for  a  million  pounds 
sterling.  All  with  her  is  to  be  a  business  trans- 
action ;  the  laborer  is  worth  his  hire,  but  a  part  of 
her  stock  in  trade — the  only  inexhaustible  part — is 
a  genial  good-nature.  She  simply  undertakes  to  fit 
out  the  family  with  Christmas  presents,  as  the  up- 
holsterer fits  it  out  with  window-curtains  and  por- 
tieres, on  any  scale  that  is  desired.  You  sketch  out 
for  her  what  you  want,  naming  your  general  stand- 
ard as  to  plan  and  price ;  she  tells  you  what  can  be 
done  upon  that  scale,  and,  if  you  wish,  she  makes 
the  actual  purchases.  Very  likely  she  can  make 
them  at  a  price  lower  than  you  could ;  but  that  is  a 
secondary  matter.  We  are  not  now  planning  to 
save  money  so  much  as  time,  strength,  and  the 
nervous  system. 

It  is,  of  course,  possible  that  all  this  agency 
might  be  filled  by  a  man,  but  it  is  altogether  better 
that  it  should  be  undertaken  by  a  woman.  The 
purchasers  will  usually  be  women,  even  though  a 


272  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

man  pays  the  bills ;  and  it  is  to  be  remembered, 
moreover,  that  the  whole  position  is  a  confidential 
.one,  and  involves  sacred  secrets  in  every  family. 
Much  of  it  would  be  done,  very  likely,  with  closed 
doors,  conspiring  with  Bessie  to  surprise  mamma, 
and  again  with  mamma  to  astonish  Bessie.  The 
Santa  Glaus  agent  should  therefore  be  a  woman, 
and,  if  possible,  one  well  known  in  other  ways  to 
the  household,  in  order  to  win  entire  confidence, 
and  to  keep  above  all  suspicion  of  being  unduly 
under  the  influence  of  some  particular  dealer.  If 
she  does  her  work  well,  she  will  soon  have  influence 
for  herself  with  all  dealers,  going  straight  to  head- 
quarters with  that  assured  precedence  possessed  by 
the  stewardess  on  a  steamboat,  who  quietly  walks 
into  the  clerk's  office  and  sweeps  off  the  very  last 
state-room  before  the  enraged  eyes  of  a  whole  line 
of  men,  who  are  vainly  cooling  their  boot-heels  on 
the  windy  deck  outside.  She  will  be  a  sort  of  em- 
bodied power — a  veritable  Parnell  of  the  Christmas 
trade,  knowing  that  both  dealers  and  customers 
must  conciliate  her  at  last.  Indeed,  the  only  danger 
is  lest  she  become  too  powerful,  and  be  a  despot;  in 
which  case  she  too  must  be  dethroned,  and  some 
new  substitute  inaugurated. 

Meanwhile,  who  would   not  welcome    the   Santa 
Glaus  agent?     She  will  be  sent  for,  let  us  suppose, 


SANTA   CLAUS   AGENCIES.  2 "73 

by  a  family  with  whom  she  has  dealt  already,  and 
whose  peculiar  tastes  she  knows.  They  will  unfold 
to  her  their  needs  and  exigencies — so  many  uncles 
and  aunts,  so  many  deserving  relatives  at  a  distance, 
so  many  children  of  different  ages.  Something  will 
readily  occur  to  her  for  each  :  have  tire  household 
seen  those  lovely  new  things,  so  cheap,  in  Fayal 
goods?  those  pretty  boxes  of  colored  crayons  for 
little  girls?  One  of  her  great  functions  will  lie  in 
the  simple  answering  of  questions ;  the  information 
that  would  otherwise  involve  the  ascending  and  de- 
scending of  a  dozen  elevators  in  warehouses  is  hero 
obtained  by  simple  cross-examination  in  five  min- 
utes. Supposing  that  you  take  absolutely  nothing 
that  she  brings  or  recommends,  the  mere  sugges- 
tions she  offers  are  worth  the  fee  you  pay.  Simply 
to  hear  from  her  what  you  can  not  find  this  year,  or 
what  project  will  be  utterly  impracticable — this  will 
be  a  great  deal. 

"  To  know  what  she  had  not  to  trust  to 
Was  worth  all  the  ashes  and  dust  too." 

I  cannot  doubt  that,  some  time  or  other,  the 
proper  agents  for  Santa  Clans  will  be  found;  and 
if  their  sphere  ultimately  extends  also  to  weddings 
and  birthdays,  no  matter.  It  is  idle  to  say  that 
their  services  will  destroy  all  individuality  in  prcs- 
18 


274  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

cnts ;  there  is  no  real  individuality  except  in  pre- 
paring every  present  with  your  own  hands  ;  and 
when  you  once  buy  your  gifts,  it  makes  no  differ- 
ence, as  to  the  sentiment  of  the  thing,  whether  you 
go  to  the  shop  or  the  shop  comes  to  you.  By  all 
means  let  us  have  Santa  Clans  agencies. 


LIV. 
KEREN  II APPUCH. 

NEARLY  fifty  young  women  received  their  de- 
gree of  A.B.  a  few  weeks  since  at  Smith  College, 
Northampton,  Massachusetts.  The  Boston  Daily 
Advertiser,  in  mentioning  this  fact,  makes  a  proper 
criticism  on  the  trivial  names  often  borne  by  the 
young  ladies  who  appear  on  the  list.  Unfortunate- 
ly it  goes  too  far  in  its  form  of  statement,  and  with 
that  hastiness  which  sometimes  marks  even  mascu- 
line journalists,  launches  a  boomerang  that  recoils 
upon  the  favored  youth  of  its  own  pet  institution, 
Harvard  University.  With  just  disdain  it  thus  speaks 
of  the  young  ladies :  "  No  doubt  each  had  proper- 
ly qualified  herself  for  this  distinction.  But  when 
one  finds  among  the  names  of  these  graduates  Nel- 
lies and  Carries  and  Jennies,  and  even  a  Virgie  and 
an  Annie,  it  does  not  seem  as  if  the  grave  letters 
A.B.  will  well  become  their  owners.  One  does  not 
see  Georgies  and  Freddies  in  the  list  of  those  grad- 
uated at  Harvard  College."  (The  italics  are  my 
own.) 


276  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

Does  not  one  see  them,  indeed,  or  their  equiva- 
lents ?  Then  it  is  because  one  has  not  looked,  or 
because  one  has  read  the  list  only  in  the  safe  ob- 
scurity of  a  learned  language,  where  all  endearments 
disappear — although  Cicero,  to  be  sure,  might  have 
wished  to  sec  his  beloved  daughter  appear  on  a 
college  list  as  Tulliola  instead  of  Tullia.  But  if 
any  critic  of  women's  nicknames  will  turn  to  his 
Harvard  College  catalogue  in  English,  he  will  find 
there,  in  the  official  list  of  the  sterner  sex,  precisely 
the  same  tendency  towards  the  more  familiar  names 
as  at  women's  colleges.  In  the  Senior  Class,  just 
graduated,  he  will  find  Harry  occurring  five  times 
and  Henry  seven ;  Frank  once  and  Francis  four 
times;  and  his  eyes  will  be  regaled  also  with  Fred 
and  Bertie.  In  the  Junior  Class,  to  graduate  next 
year,  he  will  find  only  one  Harry  to  nineteen  who 
bear  the  name  of  Henry ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  will  find  the  brief  name  of  Frank  carrying  all 
before  it — ten  Franks,  while  Francis  occurs  but  four 
times.  In  the  Sophomore  Class  it  is  almost  pre- 
cisely the  same — Frank  is  to  Francis  as  eight  to 
three;  while  Henry  occurs  ten  times,  Harry  three 
times,  and  Harrie  once ;  there  are  also  two  Freds. 
In  the  Freshman  Class  Francis  gets  the  npperhand 
of  Frank  at  last,  and  is  as  seven  to  three ;  Henry 
occurs  ten  times,  Harry  three  times,  Fred  once,  and 
Dan  once — the  latter  being  probably  the  old  Script- 


KERENHAPPUCH.  277 

ural  name,  but  possibly  a  colloquial  abbreviation  of 
Daniel.  Among  the  special  students  Francis  and 
Frank  balance  each  other,  one  of  each,  while  Henry 
is  found  twice  and  Harry  once.  To  sum  up :  in 
the  whole  undergraduate  department  Henry  is  to 
Harry  as  forty-eight  to  thirteen,  while  Frank  is  to 
Francis  as  twenty-three  to  nineteen ;  and  there  are 
four  Freds,  besides  Harrie  and  Bertie.  There  are 
thus  in  these  official  Harvard  lists  nearly  forty  of 
these  familiar  nicknames,  which  are  thought  so  pre- 
posterous at  a  woman's  college.  Of  course  they 
are  not  the  same  nicknames,  because  they  belong 
to  a  different  sex ;  but  can  it  be  maintained  that 
Harrie  and  Bertie  are  essentially  noble,  heroic, 
masculine,  while  Georgic  and  Freddie  are  hopeless- 
ly feminine,  and  therefore  weak? 

Whether  the  numerical  proportion  of  pet  names 
is  greater  at  women's  colleges  is  not  to  the  purpose ; 
very  likely  it  may  be,  but  forty  of  them  at  Harvard 
are  quite  enough  to  destroy  all  feminine  monopoly. 
The  whole  discussion  is  therefore  reduced  to  the 
question  whether  there  is  such  a  difference  between 
the  terminations  y  and  ie  as  to  make  it  a  fine  thing 
to  be  called  Harry  and  a  thing  of  degradation  to  be 
called  Jennie.  Now  with  every  disposition  to  be 
conservative  in  this  matter  of  terminations  —  to 
stand  with  the  y's,  if  I  may  say  so  without  suspicion 
of  a  pun — I  must  declare  this  to  be  simply  a  mat- 


278  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

ter  of  usage.  To  old-fashioned  people  Tom  Moore's 
song, 

"  Fly,  fly  from  the  world,  0  Bessy,  with  mo," 

would  lose  half  its  charm  if  addrcsed  to  Bessie.  In 
the  same  way, 

"  Kitty,  a  fair  but  frozen  maid," 

would  melt  into  insignificance  if  put  into  the  new 
mould  of  Kittle ;  and  what  should  we  do  with  Dib- 
din's  chorus — if  Dibdin's  it  was — 

"  Anna,  Anne,  Nan,  Nance,  and  Nancy," 

if  we  have  to  stretch  the  line  far  enough  to  bring 
in  Annie  and  Nancie  also  ?  Yet,  after  all,  what  we 
call  old-fashioned  spelling  in  these  cases  is  not  real- 
ly the  oldest.  In  old  English  books  we  find  the 
words  now  ending  in  y  to  end  usually  in  ie — a  form 
which  we  still  preserve  in  their  plurals — and  may 
note  in  successive  editions  the  gradual  substitu- 
tion, for  instance,  of  philanthropy  for  philanthrop- 
ie.  Chaucer  has  flie  for  fly,  and  folie  for  folly. 
Y  superseded  ie  by  an  unconscious  tendency  some 
two  centuries  ago ;  and  now,  in  case  of  the  familiar 
names  of  both  sexes,  this  tendency  is  being  uncon- 
sciously and  very  gradually  reversed.  It  is  only  a 
few  years  since  Sallic  began  to  be  substituted  for 


KEKEMllAPI'UCH.  279 

Sally  ;  Mollic  has  hardly  yet  achieved  its  position  ; 
and  Nancy  still  holds  out,  though  sure  to  yield  to 
Nancie.  Among  men's  names  the  influence  is  as 
inevitable,  though  more  slowly  exerted,  Willie  and 
Charlie  being  well  established  in  place  of  Willy  and 
Charley  ;  and  Harrie  is  already  beginning  to  offer 
itself  as  a  substitute  for  Harry,  it  seems,  even  on 
the  Harvard  College  catalogue.  However  we  may 
regret  the  change,  it  looks  as  if  Harry  would  yet 
follow  the  analogy  of  the  other  names,  and  termi- 
nate in  ie  at  last. 

It  is  thus  plain  that,  botli  in  the  use  of  the  fa- 
miliar name  and  in  the  form  of  its  ending,  women 
have  simply  yielded  earlier  than  men  to  a  current 
that  reaches  both  sexes.  Both  these  tendencies  I 
deprecate,  being,  as  was  said,  an  old-fashioned  per- 
son as  to  these  matters.  Yet  I  must  admit  that  I 
have  heard  of  one  case  where  the  official  use  of  the 
pet  name  was  quite  justified.  I  was  told  by  the 
president's  secretary  at  Vassar  College  that  a  stu- 
dent just  arrived  was  once  called  upon  by  the  lady 
principal  to  give  her  name  to  be  recorded  in  the 
books.  She  gave  it  promptly  as  "  Kittie."  "Do 
you  not  think,  iny  dear  young  friend,"  said  the  dig- 
nified official,  "  that  it  is  a  pity  to  employ  so  trivial 
a  name  in  a  serious  matter?  Nothing  can  justify  it 
unless  there  is  something  very  uncouth  or  difficult 


280  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

in  your  real  name.  If  your  name  were  Kercnhap- 
pucli,  for  instance — "  "It  is,  ina'arn,"  interrupted 
the  young  girl.  This  is  probably  the  most  unex- 
pected and  conclusive  reply  ever  given  by  an  under- 
graduate to  a  teacher. 


LV. 

AMERICAN  LOVE  OF  HOME. 

IT  is  common  to  say  that  love  of  homo  does  not 
exist  in  America — that  it  is  not  a  supposable  quality 
in  a  nation  founded  on  immigration,  and  only  kept 
contented  by  constant  migration.  Nothing  is  easier 
than  to  misunderstand  people,  even  whole  races  at  a 
time.  We  insist  on  saying  that  Frenchmen,  for  in- 
stance, have  no  love  of  their  home  because  they  call 
it  chez  moi,  forgetting  that  this  moi  identifies  the 
abode  with  its  proprietor  far  more  unequivocally 
than  the  English  word.  You  may  speak  of  some 
one  else  as  also  having  a  home,  but  chez  moi  can  be- 
long to  the  speaker  alone.  So  in  regard  to  the  se- 
lection of  a  place  where  to  fix  one's  abode ;  we  all 
assume  that  every  Frenchman  wishes  to  live  in  Paris, 
when  in  truth  almost  every  Frenchman,  if  born  in 
the  country,  dreams  always  of  retiring  to  a  little  es- 
tate of  his  own,  where  for  the  rest  of  his  life  he  may 
patrol  the  woods  in  long  gaiters,  and  occasionally 
shoot  at  a  cock-sparrow.  We  all  observe  this  home- 
loving  spirit  in  the  French  Canadians,  who  are  per- 


282  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

haps  more  thoroughly  French  than  anybody  left  in 
France. 

Now  this  dream  which  exists  in  the  transatlantic 
mind  is  to  be  found  also  in  the  migrating  Ameri- 
cans. The  country  boy  who  has  come  to  the  city 
and  made  his  fortune  ends  in  buying  back  the  pa- 
ternal farm  he  once  hated,  and  in  turning  it  into  a 
country-seat.  Many  villages  of  the  Atlantic  States 
are  already  surrounded  with  showy  houses  that  are, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  ancestral  estates,  repre- 
senting the  old  settlers  several  degrees  removed. 
There  are,  no  doubt,  some  variations  in  the  style  of 
living,  but  the  whirligig  of  fashion  has  in  many 
ways  brought  round  the  later  generation  to  the  hab- 
its of  the  earlier.  The  first  settlers  had  uncarpeted 
floors,  so  have  their  descendants ;  the  founders 
drove  about  in  two-wheeled  carts,  so  do  their  pos- 
terity ;  the  earlier  residents  slept  on  hard  mattresses, 
so  do  the  later  ones.  The  very  houses  must  be  co- 
lonial— with  a  difference — and  their  occupants  wan- 
der about  the  country  to  buy  eight-day  clocks  and 
spinning-wheels.  Every  such  household  vindicates 
the  American  love  of  home.  We  all  like  to  live  for 
at  least  a  portion  of  the  year  at  onr  birthplace,  and 
we  like  to  emulate  the  style  in  which  our  ancestors 
lived — with  a  few  improvements.  The  town  libra- 
ries, for  example,  which  are  springing  up  in  every 
village  of  the  Eastern  States,  arc  specimens  of  these 


AMERICAN    LOVE    OP    HOME.  283 

improvements ;  and  they  are  built,  half  the  time,  at 
the  expense  of  some  native  of  the  town  who  may 
not  have  set  eyes  upon  it  for  many  years.  Nay, 
the  instinct  lasts  into  the  next  generation  ;  and  Mrs. 
Leighton  tells  us  that  children  born  on  the  Pacific 
coast  often  spcalc  of  the  unseen  Atlantic  region  as 
"  home." 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  in  these  cases  of  revert- 
ing to  the  early  haunts  the  old  house  is  not  always 
piously  preserved,  as  is  so  frequently  the  case  in  Eu- 
rope. No  American  can  help  being  charmed  with 
the  ancestral  homes  of  England ;  there  are  so  few 
instances  in  this  country  of  the  permanence  of  a 
homestead  through  many  generations.  Some  such 
there  are :  in  the  rural  parts  of  Essex  County,  Mas- 
sachusetts, there  are  farms  that  have  stood  for  two 
hundred  years  under  the  same  family  name ;  and  I 
lived  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  opposite  an  estate 
which  had  never  passed  by  a  deed,  but  was  still  held 
by  the  old  Indian  title,  and  was  occupied  by  the  fifth 
or  sixth  generation  of  the  original  stock.  But  when 
one  thinks  of  the  tremendous  price  that  is  paid  in 
England  for  this  permanence — of  the  unjust  and  of- 
ten cruel  working  of  that  practice  of  primogeniture 
by  which  it  is  secured,  and  of  that  sea  of  houseless 
poverty  that  is  seething  all  around  it — to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  incidental  result  attributed  to  primo- 
geniture by  Dr.  Johnson,  that  it  made  but  one  fool 


284  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

in  a  family  —  one  may  well  be  glad  that  \ve  do 
not  have  the  possession  secured  here  in  the  same 
way. 

And  much  of  the  attraction  that  draws  Ameri- 
cans to  England  is  this  same  love  of  home,  bidding 
them  explore  a  still  older  home.  For  this  they  en- 
dure temporary  exile  from  their  real  abode,  and  bear 
as  patiently  as  possible  that  rather  childish  social 
structure  which  still  dominates  the  English  world. 
Sometimes,  indeed,  by  long  residence,  Americans 
come  to  enjoy  this  structure,  as  dwellers  in  Switz- 
erland come  actually  to  like  those  high -flavored 
cheeses  that  are  at  first  so  repulsive.  Many  a  man, 
too,  as  Wendell  Phillips  used  to  say,  is  a  democrat 
only  because  he  was  not  born  a  nobleman ;  and  it  is 
observed  that  when  one  speaks  of  the  delights  of 
living  in  Europe,  he  never  imagines  himself  to  be 
living  there  in  the  same  way  as  here;  the  life  must 
be  a  perpetual  holiday  with  large  outlay  and  no 
duties  to  anybody  ;  without  that,  one  might  as  well 
be  in  New  York.  So  the  young  American  girl,  how- 
ever moderate  her  claims  at  home,  stipulates  for  noth- 
ing less  than  a  ducal  palace  in  England  ;  let  her  mar- 
ry an  English  business  man,  and  she  will  soon  find 
whether  she  likes  it  better  than  life  in  America.  At 
least  I  knew  a  young  girl  who  tried  it,  and  she  soon 
found  herself  undergoing  so  many  real  or  fancied 
slights  because  her  husband  was  "  only  in  trade " 


AMERICAN   LOVE    OF    HOME.  285 

that  she  was  soon  glad  to  bring  him  back  to  this  side 
of  the  Atlantic. 

Again,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  we  cannot 
get  back  to  our  old  home  by  merely  crossing  the 
ocean  for  it ;  it  has  changed,  even  as  our  old  homes 
in  this  country  have  changed,  and  perhaps  more  than 
they.  The  London  of  to-day  is  not  even  that  of 
Dickens  and  Thackeray,  much  less  that  of  Milton 
and  Defoe ;  nor  is  the  Paris  of  to-day  that  of  Pe- 
trarch, which  he  described  (in  1333)  as  the  most  dirty 
and  ill-smelling  town  he  had  ever  visited,  Avignon 
alone  excepted.  Already  we  have  to  search  labori- 
ously for  old  things  and  old  ways,  as  the  traveller  in 
Switzerland  searches  for  the  vanished  costumes,  such 
as  the  Ssviss  dolls  wear.  Already  we  have  to  go 
farther  East  for  the  old  and  the  poetic  ;  and  find 
even  Japan  sending  us  back  our  own  patterns  a  little 
Orientalized.  The  only  unchanged  past  is  in  litera- 
ture and  in  our  fancy.  It  is  in  the  books  that  most 
set  us  thinking — Emerson's  "  Nature  "  and  Thoreau's 
u  Walden,"  for  instance — that  we  really  come  back  to 
our  birthplace  and  re-enter  the  atmosphere  of  home. 


LVI. 
MORE  THOROUGH  WORK  VISIBLE. 

IT  is  beginning  to  be  plain  that  with  the  great 
advance  in  the  education  of  women,  during  the  last 
thirty  years,  there  is  already  a  marked  advance  in 
the  grade  of  their  intellectual  work.  At  a  late 
meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  in  Buffalo,  New  York,  nearly 
every  section  offered  among  its  scientific  papers  some 
contribution  from  a  woman.  In  the  section  of  An- 
thropology, the  paper  that  excited  most  interest  was 
that  of  Mrs.  Nuttall  Pinart  on  Mexican  inscriptions, 
which  is  described  as  "  completely  revolutionizing" 
the  method  by  which  these  important  historical 
memorials  have  hitherto  been  interpreted.  Dr.  Brin- 
ton,  who  is  on  the  whole  the  highest  authority  on 
this  class  of  subjects,  said  that  this  paper  was  "  of 
epoch-making  importance,"  and  that  its  conclusions 
would  probably  be  sustained.  In  the  section  of 
Chemistry,  a  paper  was  read  by  Miss  Helen  C.  De 
S.  Abbott  on  the  composition  of  a  bark  from  Hon- 
duras that  presents  new  and  curious  ingredients,  of 
peculiar  value  to  dyers.  She  also  read  a  paper  on  the 


MORE   THOROUGH    WORK   VISIBLE.  287 

relation  of  the  chemical  constituents  of  plants  to  their 
forms  and  evolution,  advancing  the  view  that  chem- 
ical considerations  may  yet  have  weight  as  a  basis  for 
botanical  classification.  In  the  section  of  Economic 
Science,  Mrs.  John  Lucas,  of  New  Jersey,  entered 
a  paper  upon  Silk  Culture,  but  was  not  apparently 
present  to  read  it.  In  the  section  of  Mathematics  and 
Astronomy,  Miss  Anna  Winlock,  of  the  Harvard  Ob- 
servatory, was  associated  by  name  with  Prof.  Rogers, 
of  that  institution,  in  presenting  a  paper  on  "  The 
limitations  in  the  use  of  Taylor's  theorem  for  the 
computation  of  the  precessions  of  close  polar  stars." 
All  this  is  very  unlike  anything  that  could  have 
been  reported  twenty-five  years  ago ;  and  though  it  is 
possible  that  no  one  of  these  ladies  may  have  been 
a  student  at  a  woman's  college,  yet  they  stand  nev- 
ertheless for  that  advance  all  along  the  line  which 
the  women's  colleges  represent.  It  must  be  re- 
membered also  that  the  new  American  Historical 
Association  has  many  women  as  members,  and  has 
issued  among  its  first  publications  an  elaborate  pa- 
per by  one  of  these — Miss  Lucy  M.  Salmon,  of  Michi- 
gan LTniversity  —  on  the  history  of  the  appointing 
power  in  our  government.  In  the  reports  of  the 
Peabody  Museum  of  American  Archaeology,  at  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts,  an  important  place  is  always 
assigned  to  the  researches  of  Miss  Alice  C.  Fletcher 
and  Miss  Cornelia  Studlev.  At  the  late  triennial 


288  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

meeting  of  the  intercollegiate  society  of  Phi  Beta 
Kappa — the  only  such  society  based  on  scholarship  in 
America,  all  others  existing  merely  for  social  purposes 
— it  came  out  incidentally  that  at  least  three  out  of 
the  twenty  chapters  now  composing  the  fraternity  had 
already  admitted  women  as  members,  Cornell  having 
a  dozen.  All  these  signs  indicate  a  steady  progress  in 
the  admission  of  women  to  the  ranks,  not  of  thought 
and  action  alone,  but  of  study  and  scholarship. 

When  we  turn  from  science  to  literature,  the  ad- 
vance is  not  quite  so  marked.  It  is  considerable  and 
substantial ;  yet  in  view  of  the  completeness  with 
which  literary  work  is  now  thrown  open  to  women, 
and  their  equality  as  to  pay,  there  is  room  for  some 
surprise  that  it  is  not  greater.  Women  have  engaged 
largely  in  journalism,  and  with  much  success ;  but 
it  must  be  remembered  that  journalism  is  not  litera- 
ture, though  it  belongs  to  the  same  genus,  and  may 
be  quite  as  important.  Journalism  is  to  literature 
— to  use  a  culinary  comparison — as  are  the  breakfast 
griddle-cakes  to  the  loaf  of  bread.  The  former  are 
to  be  eaten  hot  or  not  at  all,  while  the  bread  only 
improves  by  a  day  or  two's  keeping.  The  same 
cook  may  happen  to  excel  in  both,  but  this  is  a  com- 
bination of  two  different  gifts,  and  cannot  safely  be 
counted  on.  The  department  in  which  one  may 
next  hope  for  an  advance  among  the  graduates  of 
our  women's  colleges  is  in  what  may  be  called  the 


MOKE   TH0110UGII   WOEK   VISIBLE.  289 

art  of  intellectual  bread-making — the  production  of 
permanent  literature. 

It  must  be  readily  admitted  that  the  contributions 
of  American  women  to  the  poetry  and  fiction  of 
the  day  are  abundant  and  creditable.  But  it  must 
be  remembered  that  journalism  itself  is  hardly  more 
ephemeral  than  all  poetry  or  fiction  short  of  the 
highest ;  and  our  rapid  American  life  has  already 
created  and  forgotten  several  generations  of  such 
short-lived  celebrities.  In  Griswold's  laborious  "  Fe- 
male Poets  of  America,"  published  some  forty  years 
ago,  there  is  hardly  a  name  that  is  now  remem- 
bered ;  and  Poe  and  Willis  in  those  days  used  to 
place  a  crown  of  the  most  perishable  materials  on 
the  head  of  every  woman  who  flattered  them  or 
whom  they  wished  to  flatter.  Apart  from  their 
tributes,  a  place  on  Parnassus  was  supposed  to  be 
securely  held  by  the  Davidson  sisters,  for  instance, 
two  half-developed  girls,  who  earned  by  their  pa- 
thetic early  deaths  what  really  passed  for  fame.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  a  place  more  permanent  can  be 
assigned  to  the  good-natured  Gary  sisters.  A  great- 
er loss  to  memory  is  the  fame  of  Miss  Sedgwiclc, 
whose  graphic  and  sensible  fiction — realistic  in  tho 
best  sense — seems  absolutely  unknown  to  the  gen- 
eration now  growing  up.  Is  it  so  certain  that  the 
women  now  popular  as  poets  and  novelists  are  se- 
curer in  their  position  than  their  predecessors  ? 
19 


290  WOMEN  AND   MEN. 

There  are  really  but  two  grounds  of  permanence 
in  literature — that  won  by  positive  genius  and  that 
won  by  labor.  Where  both  are  united,  a  book  may 
stand  by  itself,  like  Gibbon's  "Roman  Empire,"  and 
prove  solid  and  indestructible  as  the  Pyramids — 
nay,  earthquake  -  proof,  which  they  are  not.  But, 
even  short  of  this,  it  is  possible  for  an  author  who 
takes  a  good  subject  and  does  his  work  well  to  se- 
cure a  tolerably  permanent  place,  even  without  great 
genius.  When  will  our  women's  colleges  turn  out 
a  race  of  graduates  who  will  devote  themselves  to 
literature  even  as  faithful!)'  as  many  men  now  do, 
making  it  an  object  for  life  to  do  thoughtful  and 
serious  work?  I  am  told  by  editors  that  you  may 
almost  count  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand  the  women 
in  America  to  whom  you  can  assign  a  subject  for  a 
magazine  paper,  requiring  scholarly  effort  and  labor, 
and  have  the  work  well  done.  This  is  the  gap  that 
.needs  to  be  filled  by  literary  women  at  present. 
The  supply  of  second-grade  fiction — and  by  this  is 
meant  all  fiction  inferior  in  grade  to  George  Eliot's 
— is  now  tolerably  well  secured.  But  the  demand 
for  general  literary  work  of  a  solid  and  thoughtful 
nature,  demanding  both  scholarship  and  a  trained 
power  of  expression  —  this  is  never  very  well  sup- 
plied among  men,  and  is,  with  few  exceptions,  nn- 
supplied  among  American  women.  To  meet  this 
demand  we  may  fairly  look  to  our  colleges. 


LVII. 
CHRISTMAS  ALL  THE  TIME. 

"  PAPA,"  said  a  certain  little  girl  of  my  acquaint- 
ance, on  the  26th  of  last  December,  "  why  can't  it 
be  Kismas  all  the  time?"  It  seemed  to  revive  a 
similar  meditation  that  arose  in  her  mind  on  the 
morning  after  her  birthday,  when  she  asked  where 
her  birthday  was  gone.  On  the  day  succeeding 
Christmas  this  melancholy  inquiry  certainly  seemed 
a  very  natural  reflection.  That  day  of  delight — the 
early  waking,  the  matutinal  stocking,  the  decorated 
house,  the  gathering  of  kindred,  the  successive  pres- 
ents, the  universal  petting — why  could  not  these  re- 
main and  become  human  nature's  daily  food  ?  A 
child's  desire  of  felicity  is  and  ought  to  be  boundless. 
It  is  only  time  that  teaches  us  the  limitations  of  hap- 
piness, and  we  often  accept  these  restrictions  a  great 
deal  too  soon.  "Care is  taken,"  Goethe  says,  "that 
the  trees  shall  not  grow  up  into  the  sky  ;"  but  the 
stronger  the  impulse  the  greater  the  growth. 

"  To  let  the  new  life  in,  we  know 

Desire  must  ope  the  portal ; 
Perhaps  the  longing  to  be  so 
Helps  make  the  soul  immortal." 


292  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

I  know,  at  any  rate,  that  the  little  girl's  longing 
set  me  wishing  that  her  life  could  be  made,  so  far 
as  possible,  a  continuous  Christinas. 

Do  not,  gentle  reader,  come  in  at  once  with  dis- 
creeter  severity,  and  point  out  that  the  very  essence 
of  a  holiday  lies  in  its  being  a  holiday — that  is,  some- 
thing exceptional— and  that  the  wish  to  have  it  last 
all  the  time  is  as  reasonable  as  the  wish  which  chil- 
dren sometimes  form,  and  indeed  sometimes  act  upon, 
to  have  their  breakfast  or  dinner  last  all  day.  But 
what  made  the  joy  of  Christmas,  after  all  ?  Behind 
all  the  visible  presents  and  special  amusements  there 
lay  the  general  atmosphere  of  a  time  of  joy,  of  free- 
dom, of  Jove  and  attention  and  companionship ;  a 
cheerful  and  smiling  household,  in  short,  instead  of 
one  preoccupied  and  careworn  ;  a  day  of  "  Come 
here,  darling!"  instead  of  "Run  away,  dear!" — and 
tins  is  surely  a  large  part  of  what  Christmas  means 
to  a  child.  So  far  as  these  things  go,  it  is  worth  a 
little  effort  to  keep  up  the  spirit  of  Christmas  even 
when  that  happy  season  lias  gone  by. 

Think  again  of  the  value  of  that  atmosphere  of 
sunshine !  The  Grossest  person  is  less  apt  to  be 
cross  to  a  child  on  Christmas  morning;  the  most 
exacting  is  a  little  less  rigid.  The  child  is  then  a 
prime  object,  something  to  be  especially  considered, 
not  put  aside.  On  ordinary  days  how  often  the 
child,  for  whom  the  parent  would  perhaps  die — if 


CHRISTMAS   ALL   THE   TIME.  293 

it  came  to  that — is  yet  made  the  scapegoat  of  that 
parent's  moods,  or  occupations,  or  nerves !  The  ten- 
der mother  could  not  hear  without  tears,  in  a  police 
report,  the  tale  of  a  child  whom  some  brutal  father 
had  kicked  because  he  himself  was  surly  or  disap- 
pointed; and  yet  she  herself  that  morning  has  per- 
haps vented  some  temporary  vexation,  half  uncon- 
sciously, on  her  child,  and  then  has  thought  the 
little  thing  unreasonable  because  it  cried.  How 
much  of  what  we  call  moodincss  in  children  is  in 
reality  fatigue  or  dyspepsia  in  the  parent!  I  re- 
member well  that  when  I  taught  a  school  in  a  sub- 
urb of  Boston,  just  after  leaving  college,  there  were 
days  when  everything  went  wrong,  and  the  best  boys 
in  the  school  seemed  filled  with  a  spirit  of  restless- 
ness and  irritation.  At  first  it  seemed  to  me  that  it 
must  be  the  weather ;  and  at  last,  on  serious  reflec- 
tion, I  made  the  discovery  that  these  exceptional 
days  of  discord  were  invariably  the  days  after  I  had 
myself  been  out  unusually  late  the  night  before. 
The  nervous  irritation  of  the  pupils  simply  reflected 
that  of  the  teacher ;  he  was  the  sinner,  they  only 
the  scapegoats.  Could  one  simply  be  reasonable 
with  children,  it  would  go  a  great  way  towards  mak- 
ing them  reasonable  with  us.  Could  we  always  be 
to  them  what  we  are  on  Christmas -day,  it  would 
certainly  help  them  towards  having  a  Christmas  all 
the  year  round. 


294  WOMEN   AND   MEN. 

But  the  presents !  Christmas  consists  m  the  pres- 
ents, \vc  say,  and  we  cannot  be  giving  gifts  all  the 
time.  It  might  possibly  be  better  if  we  could  do 
this  than  to  concentrate  on  one  day  such  a  super- 
abundance of  enjoyment.  But  granting  that  it  is 
desirable,  even  at  the  risk  of  excess,  to  have  that  one 
glorious  hour  of  crowded  life  once  a  year,  there  is 
nothing  essentially  unreasonable  in  the  thought  of  a 
gift  every  day.  For  what  does  a  gift  mean  to  a 
child?  Few  children,  luckily,  are  so  precocious  as 
to  care  what  a  thing  costs.  A  present  is  a  novelty, 
that  is  all — something  fresh  and  unexpected,  great 
or  small ;  and  what  it  really  costs,  in  this  sense,  is 
not  money,  but  sympathy  and  ingenuity.  By  far  the 
most  enjoyable  Christmas  gift  received  by  the  afore- 
said little  three-year-old  girl  was  a  small  and  cheap 
basket  containing  a  thimble,  a  needle,  two  spools  of 
thread,  and  some  scraps  of  silk  and  ribbon,  perhaps 
costing  altogether  the  sum  of  thirty  cents.  The  su- 
perb doll,  the  cynosure  of  neighboring  eyes,  was 
soon  neglected,  but  the  basket  was  and  is  a  daily 
joy.  Of  all  necessary  elements  in  making  a  child 
happy,  it  seems  to  me  that  money,  beyond  a  very 
little,  is  the  least  important.  The  real  Lord  and  Lady 
Bountiful  arc  not  those  whose  least  gift  implies  a 
fortune,  but  they  are  Caleb  Garth,  in  "Middlemarch," 
who  never  forgets  to  cut  the  large  red  seal  from  his 
letters  for  the  expectant  children  ;  they  are  the  wise 


CHRISTMAS    ALL   THE    TIME.  295 

mother  or  aunt  who  teaches  the  little  ones  to  bring 
home  a  daily  treasure  in  every  empty  birdVnest,  or 
pine  cone,  or  clump  of  moss,  or  in  the  brown  cocoon 
on  the  twig,  the  winter  cradle  that  holds  the  gorgeous 
beauty  of  the  emperor  moth.  For  what  purpose  did 
Nature  create  horse-chestnut  trees  except  to  show 
that  the  most  valueless  things  may  become  the  chief 
possessions  in  the  enchanted  land  of  childhood  ? 
Could  we  provide  each  front  door  with  a  horse-chest- 
nut tree  that  would  never  stop  bearing,  and  could 
we  provide  some  sympathetic  soul  inside  the  door 
to  praise  these  treasures  and  count  them,  and. point 
out  the  very  large  and  the  very  small  ones,  and  oc- 
casionally carve  them  into  baskets,  it  would  really 
go  a  great  way  towards  providing  for  the  child  a 
Christmas  all  the  time. 


LVJII. 
THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  WEAK. 

.  THE  late  Sidney  Lanier,  poet,  critic,  and  musician, 
was  a  man  of  so  high  a  tone  in  respect  to  refinement 
and  purity  that  he  might  fitly  be  called  the  Sir  Gal- 
ahad of  American  literature.  The  man  who,  while 
already  stricken  with  pulmonary  disease,  could  serve 
for  many  months  in  the  peculiarly  arduous  life  of  a 
Confederate  cavalryman  had  some  right  to  an  opin- 
ion as  to  what  constitutes  true  manhood,  and  his 
criticism  on  certain  recent  theories  in  this  direction 
are  peculiarly  entitled  to  weight.  In  Lanier's  lect- 
ures before  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  at  Balti- 
more upon  "  The  English  Novel  and  its  Develop- 
ment "  he  has  much  to  say  upon  what  I  may  call 
the  anti-kid-glove  literature,  which  is  really  no  bet- 
ter than  the  kid-glove  literature,  at  which  it  affects 
to  protest.  Lanier  quotes  the  lines  of  a  poet,  "Fear 
grace,  fear  elegance,  civilization,  delicatesse"  and 
again  where  this  poet  rejoices  in  America  because 
"here  are  the  roughs,  beards, . . .  cornbativcness,  and 
the  like;"  and  shows  how  far  were  the  founders 
of  the  republic  —  Washington,  Jefferson,  Franklin, 


THE    VICTORY    OF   THE    WEAK.  297 

Adams— from  this  theory  that  there  can  be  no  man- 
hood in  decent  clothes  or  well-bred  manners.  lie 
justly  complains  that  this  rougher  school  has  really 
as  much  dandyism  about  it  as  the  other — "  the  dan- 
dyism of  the  roustabout,"  he  calls  it ;  that  it  poses 
and  attitudinizes  and  "  is  the  extreme  of  sophistica- 
tion in  writing."  "  If  we  must  have  dandyism  in 
our  art,"  he  adds,  "  surely  the  softer  sort,  which  at 
least  leans  towards  decorum  and  gentility,  is  prefera- 
ble." Then,  going  beyond  literature  to  the  founda- 
tion of  government,  he  quotes  the  ancient  Epictetus 
against  this  modern  school,  and  asserts  that  true 
manhood  has  no  necessary  connection  with  physical 
health  or  strength,  and  that  the  true  athlete  is  he 
who  is  ruler  over  himself. 

Lanier  complains  of  this  new  type  of  democracy 
— the  merely  brawny  and  sinewy — "  that  it  has  no 
provision  for  sick,  or  small,  or  puny,  or  plain-featured, 
or  hump-backed,  or  any  deformed  people,"  and  that 
it  is  really  "  the  worst  kind  of  aristocracy,  being  an 
aristocracy  of  nature's  favorites  in  the  matter  of 
muscle."  Then  he  describes  some  weak-eyed  young 
man  in  a  counting-room  toiling  to  support  his  moth- 
er, or  send  his  brother  to  school,  and  contrasts  him 
with  this  physical  ideal.  "His  chest  is  not  huge, 
his  legs  are  inclined  to  be  pipe-stems,  and  his  dress 
is  like  that  of  any  other  book  -  keeper.  Yet  the 
weak-eyed,  pi pc-stcm-lcgged  young  man  impresses 


298  WOMEN    AND   MEN. 

me  as  more  of  a  man,  more  of  a  democratic  man, 

than  the  tallest  of 's  roughs ;  to  the  eye  of  the 

spirit  there  is  more  strength  in  this  man's  daily  en- 
durance of  petty  care  and  small  weariness  for  love, 
more  of  the  sort  which  makes  a  real  democracy  and 
a  sound  republic,  than  in  an  army  of 's  unshav- 
en loafers."  This  came,  be  it  remembered,  from  a 
man  who  had  fought  through  the  seven  days  of 
fighting  before  Richmond ;  who  had  "  given  his 
proofs,"  as  people  used  to  say  in  the  old  days  of 
duelling  —  a  thing  which  the  writer  criticised  had 
not  done.  And  then,  more  consistently  than  many 
men,  Lanicr  goes  on  to  illustrate  the  same  principle 
from  the  life  of  a  woman. 

He  describes  a  woman  of  a  type  such  as  many  of 
us  have  known,  who  has  for  twenty  years  spent  her 
life  in  bed  with  spinal  disease.  "Day  by  day  she 
lies  helpless  at  the  mercy  of  all  those  tyrannical 
small  needs  which  become  so  large  under  such  cir- 
cumstances ;  every  meal  must  be  brought  to  her,  a 
drink  of  water  must  be  handed ;  and  she  is  not  rich 
to  command  service."  Yet  she  is  a  person  of  un- 
failing spirits,  of  inexhaustible  energies,  and  the  cen- 
tre of  a  loving  circle  of  bright  people.  Her  room  is 
habitually  known  as  "  Sunnyside ;"  when  strong  men 
are  tired  they  go  to  her  for  rest;  when  the  healthy 
are  weary  they  seek  her  for  refreshment.  This  wom- 
an has  not  so  much  rude  muscle  in  her  whole  body 


THE    VICTORY    OP   THE    WEAK.  299 

as  the  favorite  hero  of  the  muscular  school  would 
have  in  a  finger ;  she  is  so  fragile  that  she  has  been 
christened  "The  White  Flower."  It  costs  her  as 
much  effort  to  press  a  friend's  hand  as  it  would  cost 
a  woodman  to  fell  a  tree.  "  Regarded  from  the 
point  of  view  of  bone  and  sinew,  she  is  simply  ab- 
surd ;  yet  to  the  eye  of  my  spirit  there  is  more  man- 
fulness  in  one  moment  of  her  loving  and  self-sacrific- 
ing existence  than  in  an  ajon  of  muscle-growth  and 
sinew-breeding;  and  hers  is  the  manfulness  which 
is  the  only  solution  of  a  true  democrat — hers  is  the 
manfulness  of  which  only  a  republic  can  be  built.  A 
republic  is  the  government  of  the  spirit ;  a  republic 
depends  upon  the  self-control  of  each  member.  You 
cannot  make  a  republic  out  of  muscles  and  prairies 
and  Rocky  Mountains ;  republics  are  made  of  the 
spirit."* 

All  this  is  true,  and  we  must  remember  that  the 
whole  tendency  of  civilization  is  in  the  direction  of 
this  thought.  While  civilization  improves  men's 
and  women's  bodies  on  the  whole — although  it  was 
once  thought  to  impair  them — it  gives  the  brain  a 
swifter  development  and  makes  that  the  source  of 
power.  It  is  now  a  rare  thing  for  soldiers  to  fight 
hand  to  hand,  even  in  the  cavalry,  to  which  Lanier 
belonged.  The  race  is  not  to  the  swift  nor  the  bat- 

*  "  English  Novel,"  p.  65. 


300  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

tie  to  the  strong.  The  weakest  hand  may  touch  off 
the  cannon  whose  ball  shall  overtake  the  swiftest  run- 
ner, miles  away.  It  is  the  virtue  of  gunpowder,  as 
Carlyle  has  said,  that  it  "makes  all  men  alike  tall." 
There  still  remain  among  some  of  our  troops  those 
caps  of  imitation  bear-skin  which  were  once  worn 
to  intimidate  a  foe.  The  fierce  head-dress  of  the 
drum  -  major  is  the  reductio  ad  absurdum,  or  ex- 
treme instance,  of  this  childish  method,  which  still 
survives  among  the  Chinese,  and  may  be  seen  in 
Japanese  pictures.  In  an  old  military  text-book  the 
Portuguese  soldiers  were  ordered  to  attack  their  op- 
ponents "with  ferocious  countenances/'  But  civil- 
ization has  set  aside  all  this  merely  physical  imprcs- 
sivencss  and  substituted  invention.  A  monk,  not  a 
soldier,  invented  gunpowder.  Savage  strength  is 
powerless  against  the  needle-gun  and  the  unseen  tor- 
pedo. This  does  not  annihilate  the  value  of  physi- 
cal health  and  vigor,  but  it  rcadapts  their  use.  The 
young  man  even  in  a  military  school  has  his  bodily 
health  trained,  not  that  he  may  grasp  his  opponent 
in  his  mighty  arms  and  throw  him  to  the  earth,  as 
formerly,  but  that  he  may  have  his  head  clear,  his 
nerves  in  equilibrium,  his  action  prompt.  It  is  al- 
together fitting  that  an  age  whose  promise  is  in 
this  direction  should  be  an  age  affording  new  train- 
ing and  new  opportunities  to  women. 


LIX. 
A  RETURN  TO  THE  HILLS. 

THOREAU  always  maintained  that  summer  passed 
into  autumn  at  a  certain  definite  and  appreciable  in- 
stant, as  by  the  turning  of  a  leaf.  In  like  manner 
those  who  direct  their  course  in  early  summer  tow- 
ards the  hilly  regions  of  New  England  are  common- 
ly made  aware  at  some  precise  and  definite  moment 
that  they  have  come  within  the  atmosphere  of  the 
hills.  It  is  usually  after  they  have  left  the  main 
railway  track,  and  are  switched  off  upon  some  little 
branch  road,  with  stops  so  frequent  that  if,  at  any 
moment  during  a  pause,  you  were  to  see  conductor 
and  brakemcn  in  full  chase  after  a  woodchuck  in  a 
cow  pasture,  nobody  would  be  astonished.  But  pres- 
ently, as  you  glide  slowly  along,  rejoicing  in  the 
more  rural  look  of  things,  after  the  heat  and  hurry 
of  the  larger  railway-stations,  there  comes  one  whiff 
of  fresher  air  through  the  open  window,  and  the 
change  is  made.  You  have  returned  to  the  hills. 
Or  rather  the  hills  have  met  you  half-way;  their 
great  benignant  breath  has  reached  you,  and  already 
something  of  the  dust  of  travel  is  shaken  off.  Over 


302  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

miles  of  bare,  pure  mountain-top,  of  pastures  scent- 
ed with  sweet-fern,  of  lanes  hedged  with  raspberry 
bushes  and  arched  with  wild  grape,  of  moist  sphag- 
num meadows  where  the  shy  arethtisa  rears  itself, 
that  breath  has  come.  Before,  all  was  city  and  sub- 
urb ;  it  is  country  now.  The  next  turn  in  the  road 
shows  you  Wachusctt,  or  Mouadnock,  or  Ascutney, 
and  you  are  among  the  hills. 

The  reprobate  French  poet  Baudelaire,  in  one  of 
his  best  poems,  sighs  to  have  been  the  lover  of  some 
youthful  giantess ;  and  describes  her  superb  propor- 
tions as  cast  carelessly  along  the  horizon  and  pro- 
tecting her  lover  by  their  vast  shade.  Browning, 
more  powerfully,  describes  the  hills  as  gathering 
round  his  Childe  Roland  to  watch  the  hour  of  dan- 
ger beneath  the  Dark  Tower  : 

"  The  dying  sunset  kindled  through  a  cleft ; 
The  hills,  like  giants  at  a  hunting,  lay, 
Chin  upon  hand,  to  see  the  game  at  bay — 
'  Now  stab  and  end  the  creature — to  the  heft !'  " 

And  even  the  gentle  Charles  Lamb,  reluctantly  torn 
from  London  streets  to  visit  Wordsworth  and  Cole- 
ridge at  the  English  Lakes,  could  not  escape  this 
same  circle  of  gigantic  figures,  and  found  them  pro- 
tecting and  kindly  as  he  looked  from  his  window  at 
night :  "  Glorious  creatures,  fine  old  fellows,  Skid- 
daw,  etc."  There  is  so  much  that  is  personal  in  the 


A   KETUKN   TO   THE    HILLS.  303 

presence  of  even  the  smallest  isolated  mountain  that 
it  is  impossible  not  to  endow  it  with  almost  human 
attributes.  The  Indians  carried  this  so  far  as  to 
imagine  a  deity  as  presiding  over  each  mysterious 
peak,  and  punishing  those  rash  mortals  who  climbed 
too  far.  The  Hebrews,  with  grander  feeling,  found 
the  source  of  aid  and  strength  in  these  solemn 
heights.  "  I  will  look  to  the  hills,  from  whence 
cometh  my  help."  Remembering  this,  old  Ethan 
Allen,  the  fearless,  when  summoned  to  surrender  his 
Green  Mountain  settlements  to  the  aggressions  of 
the  New  York  authorities,  sent  back  to  them  the 
haughty  message,  "  Our  Gods  are  gods  of  the  hills ; 
therefore  we  are  stronger  than  you."  It  was  a  nat- 
ural feeling. 

We  are  stronger,  at  any  rate,  for  seeking  hill  gods 
in  the  early  summer-time.  Many  old  friends  are 
there  before  us,  constant  to  the  season.  The  woods 
are  still  thronged  with  mountain-laurel,  but  it  is 
really  past  and  faded  and  dropping  from  the  stem, 
except  one  vast  bush  that  stands  amid  the  darkness 
of  a  pine  grove,  and  is  still  blooming  and  luxuriant 
as  if  it  were  some  semitropical  magnolia  or  rhododen- 
dron. The  bright  red  lily  is  brilliant  in  the  woods,  and 
it  loves  to  grow  on  the  very  tops  of  low  mountains 
like  Wachusett,  concentrating  its  cups  of  crimson  as 
earth's  last  defiance  to  the  blue  sky  above.  The  yel- 
low flowers  are  just  beginning — in  the  first  weeks  of 


304  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

July  the  St.  Jolm's-wort  takes  possession — and  by  the 
middle  of  that  month  the  first  feathery  golden-rod 
opens,  preparing  for  its  long  reign  over  the  pastures. 
Soon  will  follow  the  asters,  the  gorgeous  cardinal- 
flower,  the  lovely  fringed  gentian  ;  the  season  will 
run  its  course  before  we  know  it,  and  then  the 
autumn  leaves  and  the  weird  witch-hazel  will  be 
here. 

As  to  more  vocal  companions,  it  is  the  misfortune 
of  summer  visitors  to  the  hills  that  they  rarely  ar- 
rive until  the  first  burst  of  bird-song  is  gone  by,  so 
that  the  woods  are  growing  silent  until  the  loqua- 
cious summer  insects  shall  replace  the  early  birds. 
The  ever-domestic  song-sparrow  is  actively  tending 
her  second  or  third  set  of  eggs  in  her  nest  upon  the 
ground  ;  but  she  sings  little,  and  seerns  overburdened 
with  responsibilities,  while  the  robin  is  jubilant  as 
ever,  from  dawn  till  eve,  as  he  feeds  his  young  in  the 
cherry-trees.  The  brown  thrush  and  the  bluebird 
are  more  visible  than  audible;  so  is  the  cat-bird, 
while  the  veery  is  not  heard  at  all.  The  wood-thrush 
sings  daily  in  the  neighboring  pine  wood,  and  more 
sweetly  as  night  draws  on,  and  the  little  field-spar- 
row is  voluble  with  his  "  sweet,  shy,  accelerating  lay." 
Every  night  we  find  ourselves  listening  for  the  whip- 
poorwill.  Every  night  it  begins  at  a  distance,  draws 
nearer  with  darkness,  and  seems — for  it  remains  un- 
seen— to  alight  among  the  garden  bushes  and  almost 


A   RETURN    TO    THE    HILLS.  305 

upon  the  house  itself.  An  animated  dream,  it  keeps 
on  incessantly  for  a  time ;  then  stops  at  dead  of 
night,  when  sleep  becomes  too  deep  for  dreaming, 
and  then  recommences  before  dawn,  when  dreams 
are  resumed,  but  go,  as  tradition  says,  by  contraries. 
It  represents  the  remote  and  mystic  side  of  our  nat- 
ure, brought  into  unwonted  development  among  the 
hills. 
20 


LX. 
THE   SHY  GRACES. 

THE  question  is  sometimes  asked,  and  even  re- 
formers occasionally  ask  it  of  themselves,  What  is 
to  become,  in  the  years  when  women  arc  educated 
at  college  and  emancipated  from  control,  of  the  shy 
graces  that  adorned  the  savage  woman  ?  There  is  a 
certain  delicate  charm  that  seems  historically  insep- 
arable from  an  humble  and  subordinate  condition. 
We  find  it  in  the  uncivilized  woman  everywhere, 
among  the  rudest  Cossacks  or  Hottentots.  Who 
that  has  seen  a  tribe  of  Indians  untouched  by  con- 
tact with  the  white  man  can  fail  to  recall  the  modest 
bearing,  the  downcast  eves,  the  low  and  musical 

O7  ml  I 

voices,  of  the  younger  girls?  In  higher  grades  of 
civilization  the  same  type  is  often  visible  in  girls 
bred  in  convents  or  beneath  some  kindred  religious 
rule.  The  whole  aim  of  chaperonage  in  society  is 
to  prolong  or  counterfeit  this  tradition  ;  the  very 
name  of  "bud"  implies  something  modest,  half- 
closed,  untouched.  Will  not  the  very  tradition  of 
that  charming  sweetness  disappear  when  the  young 
woman  goes  to  a  public  school,  is  educated  at  a  col- 


THE    SHY    GRACES.  307 

Icgc,  and  fills  some  subsequent  post  of  duty,  as  it 
may  happen,  before  the  public  eye? 

The  answer  is  best  to  be  found,  perhaps,  in  the 
personal  observation  of  each  one.  Spenser  says  of 
the  three  Graces  of  ancient  mythology, 

"These  three  on  men  all  gracious  gifts  bestow 
Which  deck  the  body  or  adorn  the  mind 
To  make  them  lovely  or  well-favored  show," 

and  every  one  finds  these  Graces  in  his  own  circle 
of  friends  or  kindred  or  early  acquaintances,  as  the 
painter  Pal  ma  Vccchio  drew  them  from  his  own 
daughters  in  his  picture  at  Dresden.  No  one  would 
be  willing  to  acknowledge  that  the  women  he  has 
known  and  loved  the  best  are  inferior  to  those  of 
other  lands  or  times,  or  that  they  need  repression 
or  seclusion  to  make  them  more  satisfactory.  Again, 
the  charm  of  the  savage  or  the  repressed  type  is 
something  that  is  apt  to  be  temporary ;  the  maiden 
child  in  the  wild  tribe  becomes  in  later  years  the 
drudge,  the  crone,  or  the  virago ;  the  demure  and 
subdued  girl  of  French  or  Italian  society  may  be- 
come the  artful  wife  or  the  intriguing  old  woman. 
If  we  are  to  love  the  shy  graces  of  character,  they 
must  be  something  that  is  ingrain  and  permanent, 
that  adorns  the  young,  yet  deserts  not  the  old  ;  they 
must  be  essential  graces  of  womanhood,  not  of  child- 
hood or  girlhood  alone.  If  we  substitute  a  charm 


308  WOMEN   AND    MEN. 

that  is  perishable  at  any  rate,  it  matters  little  how  it 
goes ;  it  may  better  go,  indeed,  for  some  good  pur- 
pose, if  at  all. 

Tried  by  these  tests,  we  soon  discover  that  all  shy 
graces  which  go  deeply  into  the  nature  are  confined 
to  no  age,  and  indeed  to  neither  sex  taken  separate- 
ly. They  lie  in  refinement  of  feeling,  in  true  mod- 
esty, in  sweetness  of  nature,  in  gentleness  of  spirit. 
These  are  those  "angelic  manners  and  celestial 
charms"  of  which  Petrarch  writes,  and  of  which  he 
says  that  the  very  memory  saddens  while  it  delights, 
since  it  makes  all  other  possessions  appear  trivial. 
These  graces  arc  not  dependent  on  a  repressed  or 
subordinate  position,  since  they  are  very  often  as- 
sociated in  our  minds  with  the  noblest  and  most 
eminent  persons  we  have  known.  AVith  most  of 
the  very  distinguished  men,  of  Anglo-Saxon  race  at 
least,  whom  I  have  chanced  to  meet,  there  was  as- 
sociated in  some  combination  the  element  of  per- 
sonal modesty.  It  was  exceedingly  conspicuous  in 
the  two  thinkers  who  have  between  them  influenced 
more  American  minds  than  any  others  in  our  own 
ao'e — I  mean  Darwin  and  Emerson.  It  has  been 

O 

noticeable  in  contemporary  poets  —  "Whitticr  and 
Longfellow  among  ourselves,  Tennyson  and  Brown- 
ing in  England. 

It  may  be  said  that  these  are  instances  drawn 
from  persons  of  studious  tastes  and  retired  habits, 


THE    SHY    GRACES.  309 

by  whom  the  shy  graces  of  character  are  more  easily 
retained  than  by  those  who  mingle  with  the  world. 
Yet  it  would  be  as  easy  to  cite  illustrations  from 
those  whose  dealing  with  men  was  largest.  Grant 
found  it  easier  to  command  a  vast  army,  and  Lincoln 
to  rule  a  whole  nation,  than  to  overcome  a  certain 
innate  modesty  and  even  shyness  of  nature,  from 
which  the  one  took  refuge  in  a  silence  that  seemed 
stolid,  and  the  other  in  a  habit  of  story-telling  that 
hid  his  own  emotions  beneath  a  veil.  Of  the  three 
kings  of  the  American  lecture  platform  in  our  own 
day,  two  at  least — Phillips  and  Gough — admitted 
that  they  never  appeared  before  an  audience  with- 
out a  certain  shrinking  and  self-distrust.  It  must 
be  owned  that  this  quality  is  not  everywhere  con- 
nected with  conspicuous  leadership,  especially  out- 
side of  the  Anglo-Saxon  or  Anglo-American  race. 
It  is  difficult  to  associate  it,  for  instance,  with  Vic- 
tor Hugo,  with  Bismarck,  with  Garibaldi — although 
Mazzini  must  have  had  it,  and  it  was  most  visible 
and  lovable  in  Tourguenicff,  as  I  can  personally  tes- 
tify. But  enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the 
more  delicate  graces  of  character,  so  far  as  they  arc 
founded  upon  modesty  and  a  spirit  of  self -with- 
drawal, are  consistent  with  the  most  eminent  and 
acknowledged  greatness  before  the  world.  If  this 
is  the  case  even  with  men,  why  not  with  women,  in 
whom  the  source  and  spring  of  humility  lies  deeper? 


310  WOMEN    AND    MEN. 

If  this  be  true,  there  is  no  reason  to  fear  that  the 
more  public  station  of  woman — the  physician's  of- 
fice, the  preacher's  pulpit,  the  service  on  school  com- 
mittees or  in  professorships,  and  all  the  rest  —  is 
destined  to  mar  her  nature  or  destroy  her  charm. 
An  instinct  no  more  pervasive  than  this,  a  charm 
that  goes  no  deeper,  can  hardly  be  worth  preserving. 
Admit  that  in  the  intervening  period,  while  she  still 
has  to  fight  for  free  development,  there  may  some- 
times be  traces  of  the  combat — there  is  yet  every 
reason  to  believe  that,  when  this  period  is  past,  a 
woman  may  take  whatever  sphere  she  can  win,  and 
may  yet  retain  all  the  sweetest  and  most  subtle  at- 
tributes that  constitute  her  a  woman. 


INDEX. 


(Titles  of  chapters  are  given  in  capital  letters.) 

A. 

Abbott,  H.  C.  De  S.,  286. 

Academy,  French,  originated  with  women,  86. 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS,  MARKETABLE,  60. 
Adam,  7. 

Adams,  Abigail,  114. 
Adams,  John,  114. 
^Eschylns,  44. 
Agassiz,  Louis,  96. 
Alcinons,  9,  11. 

"Alice  in  Wonderland"  quoted,  132;  "In  the  Looking- 
glass,"  192. 

Allen,  Ethan,  quoted,  303. 
Allen,  Grant,  quoted,  212. 
Almnmc,  Society  of  Collegiate,  232,  235. 
AMKUICAX  LOVE  OF  HOME,  281. 
Ampere,  J.  J.,  248. 
Anderseu,  H.  C.,  265. 
Andrew,  J.  A.,  38. 
Anglomania,  22. 
Aphrodite,  2. 
Apollo,  Phoebus,  44,  47. 
Appleton,  T.  G.,  22. 
Arab  festivals,  226. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  quoted,  130.    Also  133,  140,  248. 


312  INDEX. 

Artemis,  2. 

Aryan  race,  traditions  of  the,  46. 

Astell,  Mary,  quoted,  89. 

Athena,  45. 

Audrey,  102. 

Aucrbach,  Berthold,  quoted,  14. 

AUNTS,  MAIDEN,  33. 

Austen,  Jane,  quoted,  113.     Also  156,  157,  160,  194. 

Authorship,  difficulties  of,  151,  202. 

B. 

Babies,  exacting  demands  of,  41. 

Badeau,  General  Adam,  quoted,  108,  128. 

Bancroft,  H.  H.,  225. 

Barnum,  P.  T.,  108. 

Barton,  Clara,  20. 

Baudelaire,  Charles,  302. 

Baxter,  Richard,  34. 

Beach,  S.  N.,  quoted,  143. 

Beaconsiield,  Lord,  quoted,  271. 

Beethoven,  L.  von,  252. 

Bell,  A.  G.,  99,  209. 

Bell,  Currcr.     See  Bronte,  Charlotte. 

Bickerdyke,  Mother,  20. 

Birds  at  midsummer,  304. 

BIRTHDAY,  SECRET  OP  THE,  176. 

Bismarck,  Prince,  309. 

Black  sergeant,  prayer  of,  79. 

Black,  William,  quoted,  168. 

Blake,  William,  180. 

Blanc,  Louis,  129. 

Blood,  Lydia,  102. 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  247. 

Bonheur,  Rosa,  250,  252,  261,  263. 

Bossuet,  J.  B.,  87. 

Bourbons,  decline  of,  107. 

BREAKING  AND  BENDING,  121. 

Bremer,  Fredrika,  quoted,  14. 


INDEX.  313 

Brinton,  Dr.  D.  G.,  quoted,  286. 

Bronte,  Charlotte,  260. 

Brooks,  Mrs.  Sidney,  76. 

Browning,  E.  B.,  250,  252,  263. 

Browning,  Robert,  quoted,  273,  302.     Also  303. 

BRUTALITY  OF  "  PUNCH  AND  JUDY,"  TIIK,  254. 

Burns,  Robert,  19. 

"  BUT  STRONG  OF  WILL,"  54. 

Butler,  Fanny  Kcinble,  154. 

Byron,  Lord,  19,  160. 

C. 

Canadian  judge,  ruling  of,  92. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  quoted,  300.     Also  149. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  quoted,  168,  169. 

Carr,  Lucien,  179. 

Cato,  M.  P.,  97. 

"  CHANCES,"  65. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  quoted,  127. 

Chateaubriand,  F.  R.,  76. 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  278. 

"  Chevy  Chace,"  quoted,  220. 

Child,  L.  M.,  13,  179. 

Children,  dressing  of,  for  school,  241. 

CHILDREN  ON  A  FARM,  197. 

CHILDREN,  THE  HUMOR  OF,  217. 

Choate,  Rufus,  18. 

CHRISTMAS  ALL  THE  TIME,  291. 

Cicero,  M.  T.,  276. 

Cincinnati,  art  schools  in,  164. 

CITY  AND  COUNTRY  LIVING,  212. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  2,  3,  4. 

Cleveland,  Captain  R.  J.,  247. 

Clytemnestra,  44. 

Coffin,  Lucretia,  47. 

Cogau,  Henry,  159. 

Cogswell,  J.  G.,  quoted,  110. 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  195,  302. 


314  INDEX. 

College  towns,  life  in,  48. 

Con  way,  M.  D.,  129. 

Cookery-books,  13. 

Co-operation  in  business,  148. 

Copley,  J.  S.,  50. 

Corneille,  Pierre,  87. 

Cornell  University,  288. 

Coulanges,  F.  de,  45. 

"  Counterparts,"  68. 

Country  weeks  and  city  weeks,  34. 

Cowper,  William,  19. 

Cnulclock,  C.  E.     See  Murfree,  M.  N. 

CHEATOII  OF  THE  HOME,  THE,  28. 

Cross,  M.  A.  (George  Eliot),  quoted,  78.    Also  88, 158, 249, 

252,  260,  263,  290. 
Crowne,  Johnny,  5. 

D. 

Dabuey,  Charles,  170. 
Dauton,  G.  J.,  6. 
D'Arblay,  Madame,  157. 
Darwin,  Charles,  quoted,  99.     Also  23,  308. 
Darwin,  Dr.  Erasmus,  114. 
DAUGHTERS  ov  TOIL,  THE,  70. 
Davidson  sisters,  the,  289. 
De  Quincey,  Thomas,  quoted,  110. 
Defoe,  Daniel,  285. 
Dibdin,  Charles,  quoted,  278. 
Dickens,  Charles,  quoted,  94,  195.     Also  109,  285. 
Diderot,  Denis,  178. 
Dinner,  difficulties  of  the,  240. 
Dix,  Dorothea,  20. 
DOLLS,  THE  DISCIPLINE  OF,  264. 
Domestic  service,  172. 
Douglas,  Catherine,  56. 
Douglas,  Ellen,  55. 

Dudevant,  A.  L.  A.  (George  Saud),  88,  249,  252,  260, 
263. 


INDEX.  315 

E. 

Edgeworth,  Maria,  quoted,  78.     Also  157,  180. 

Edison,  T.  A.,  209. 

Edmunds,  George  F.,  137. 

Edward  II.,  213. 

Egypt,  preservation  of  royalty  in,  109. 

Emerson,  M.  J.,  quoted,  143. 

Emerson,  Mrs.,  quoted,  143. 

Emerson,  11.  W.,  quoted,  159, 233.    Also  1, 97,  99, 285, 308. 

EMPIRE  OF  MANNERS,  THE,  75. 

English  tourists  in  America,  36,  9u. 

Epictetus,  297. 

"Eumenides"  of  vEschylus,  tho  plot  of,  44. 

Eve,  7. 

EXALTED  STATIONS,  126. 


Family,  the,  among  Australians,  45  ;  in  ancient  Rome, 

45. 

FAKM,  CHILDREN  ON  A,  197. 
FEAR  OF  ITS  BEING  WASTED,  THK.  232. 
"Felix  Holt,"  78. 
Fielding,  Henry,  11. 
Fields,  J.  T.,  40. 
FINER  FORCES,  131. 
Fletcher,  Alice  C.,  287. 
FLOOD-TIDE  OF  YOUTH,  THE,  48. 
Florae,  Madame  de,  180. 
Fonteuelle,  13.  le  B.  de,  quoted,  85. 
Fraucomania,  26. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  296. 
Freeman,  Alice,  21. 
French  standards  vs.  English,  23,  98. 
Frenchmen,  domesticity  of,  281. 
"  Friends,"  marriages  among,  47. 
Fuller,  Margaret.     See  Ossoli. 
Furies,  the,  44. 


316  IXDEX. 

G. 

Galahad,  Sir,  296. 

Galleuga,  A.,  98. 

Garibaldi,  Giuseppe,  309. 

Garrison,  W.  L.,  18,  177. 

Garth,  Caleb,  294. 

Gellius,  Aulus,  quoted,  97. 

Genlis,  Madame  de,  57,  179. 

German  schools,  drawbacks  of,  246. 

GKRMAX  STANDARD,  THE,  243. 

Germany,  influence  of,  23,  134. 

Gibbon/Edward,  290. 

Gisborne,  Thomas,  4. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  136. 

Godwin,  M.  W.,  232. 

Godwin,  William,  178. 

Goethe,  J.  W.  von,  quoted,  36,  179,  291. 

Gosse,  E.  H.,  quoted,  193. 

Gough,  J.  B.,  309. 

Gower,  Lord  Ronald,  138. 

GRACES,  THE  SHY,  306. 

Grant  and  Ward,  191. 

Grant,  General  U.  S.,  20,  127,  301). 

Griswold,  R.  W.,  289. 

Gymnastics,  elevation  of,  64. 

H. 

Hair,  the  uses  of,  2. 
Hale,  E.  E.,  208. 

Hale,  H.  E.,  his  theory  of  language.  181. 
Hale,  Lucretia,  40. 
HAREM,  SHADOW  OF  THE,  12. 
Harland,  Marion,  13. 
Harte,  Bret,  132,  153,  224. 
Harvard  University,  88,  275,  287. 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  quoted,  105. 
Hayley,  William,  113. 


INDEX.  317 

Hayne,  P.  H.,  quoted,  223. 

Ilcmans,  F.  D.,  18,  19. 

HILLS,  A  RETURN  TO  THE,  301. 

"  Histoire  Littdraire  (les  Femines  Francaises,"  252. 

Holmes,  Dr.  O.  W.,  quoted,  51.     Also  98,  153,  203. 

HOME,  AMERICAN  LOVE  OF,  281. 

HOME,  THE  CREATOR  OF  THE,  28. 

Homer,  8,  203. 

Homes,  occasional  permanence  of,  in  America,  283. 

Hood,  Thomas,  19. 

Horse-cliestntits,  the  value  of,  295. 

HOUSE  OF  CARDS,  A,  138. 

House  of  Lords,  English,  decline  of,  136. 

Household  decoration,  stages  of,  161. 

HOUSEHOLD  DECORATORS,  WOMEN  AS,  161. 

House-keeping  in  America,  72,  116;  in  England,  73. 

Ho  wells,  W.  D.,  quoted,  40,  52,  64,  194.     Also  102,  141, 

157,  158, 180. 
Ho witt,  A.  W.,  45. 
Hugo,  Victor,  309. 
Humboldt,  Wilhelm  von,  182. 
HUMILITY  IN  AMERICANS,  ON  A  CERTAIN,  95. 
Humility,  the  spring  of,"  309. 
HUMOR  OF  CHILDREN,  THE,  217. 
Hun,  Dr.  E.  E.,  183,  184. 
Huxley,  T.  H.,  99. 

I. 

INDEPENDENT  PURSE,  THE,  115. 
Industry,  female,  changes  in,  7. 
INFLUENCE,  THE  WOMAN  OF,  17. 
lugelow,  Jean,  cited,  133. 
Invalids,  visits  to,  227. 
Italian  manners,  25. 

J. 

Jackson,  Helen  ("H.  H."),  158,  236. 
James,  Henry,  157,  158. 


318  INDEX. 

Jameson,  Anna  M.,  103,  180. 
Janauschek,  Madame,  221. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  298. 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  the,  296. 
Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  283. 
Joubert,  Joseph,  quoted,  155. 
Journalism  and  literature,  288. 
Jupiter,  45. 

K. 

Kant,  Immamiel,  90. 
Kapiolani,  Queen,  107. 
Keats,  John,  19. 
Kennedy,  W.  P.,  223. 
Kent,  Miss,  40. 
KERENHAFPUCH,  275. 

L. 

Ladd,  Professor  G.  T.,  90. 

Lamb,  Charles,  quoted,  83,  302. 

Lander,  Jean  M.,  20. 

LANGUAGE,  THE  NEW  THEORY  OF,  181. 

Languages,  variety  of,  182. 

Lanier,  Sidney,  quoted,  296. 

Leclerc,  M.,  87. 

Lecturers,  English,  96. 

Leighton,  Caroline  C.,  quoted,  283. 

Leopold,  Prince,  100. 

Lcroi,  Madame,  87. 

Leslie,  Eliza,  13. 

LETTERS,  WOMEN'S,  110. 

Libraries,  public,  282. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  20,  218,  309. 

Lioness  more  formidable  than  lion,  59,  145. 

Literary  centre  unimportant,  225. 

LITERARY  STYLE,  WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  ON,  85. 

Livermore,  Mary  A.,  20. 

Lochinvur,  the  young,  55. 


INDEX.  319 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  19,  203,  308. 

Lotze,  Hermann,  quoted,  90. 

Louis  XIV.,  179. 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  quoted,  171,  212,  291.     Also  95,  97,  99. 

Lucas,  Mrs.  John,  287. 

Lyon,  Mary,  21. 

Lytton,  Lord,  193. 

M. 

MAIDEN  AUNTS,  38. 

Maiden  ladies,  dignity  of,  31. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  cited,  10. 

Maitland,  Major,  137. 

Mangin,  Arthur,  quoted,  214. 

Mann,  Horace,  quoted,  134.     Also  243,  244. 

Manners,  American,  101,  169,  224 ;  English,  139  ;  Italian 

and  Spanish,  25. 
MANXEKS,  THE  EMPIRE  OK,  75. 
Mariotti.     See  Gallenga. 
Marketable  accomplishments,  60. 
Marriage,  chances  of,  65. 
Marshall,  Emily,  177. 

Martincau,  Harriet,  quoted,  7,  228.    Also  13,  263. 
MARTYRDOM,  MICE  AND,  141. 
Match!  n,  Maud,  103,  104. 
Mather,  Cotton,  quoted,  252. 
Matthews,  Brander,  171. 
Mazare,  Prince,  160. 
Maz/ini,  Giuseppe,  129,  309. 
Mellin's  Food,  205. 
MEN,  THE  NERVOUSNESS  OF,  238. 
MEN'S  NOVELS  AXD  WOMEN'S  NOVELS,  156. 
Mendelssohn,  13.  F.,  15. 

Mendelssohn,  Fanny,  musical  compositions  of,  15,  251. 
"Meretricious,"  origin  of  the  word,  10. 
Mericourt,  T he~roiguc  do,  236. 
MICE  AND  MARTYRDOM,  141. 
Michigan  University,  287. 


320  IXDEX. 

Miller,  Captain  Betsey,  211. 

Millet,  J.  F.,  194. 

Milton,  John,  19,  285. 

Minerva,  45. 

Miranda,  102,  103. 

Missionaries,  236. 

Moliere,  J.  13.,  87. 

Moore,  Thomas,  quoted,  19,  278. 

Mopsa,  102. 

"Moral  equivalence  of  sexes,"  91. 

MORE  THOROUGH  WORK  VISIBLE,  286. 

Morse,  S.F.  13.,  99. 

MOTHER,  ON  ONE'S  RELATIONSHIP  TO  ONE'S,  43. 

Mott,  Lncretia,  47,  179. 

Miiller,  Max,  26. 

Miirfree,  M.  K,  225,  259,  263. 

MUSICAL  WOMAN,  THE  MISSING,  249. 

N. 

Napoleon.     Sec  Bonaparte. 

Napoleon,  Louis,  101. 

Napoleons,  dynasty  of  the,  98. 

Nausikaa,  8,  11. 

NERVOUSNESS  OF  MEN,  THE,  238. 

NEW  THEORY  OF  LANGUAGE,  THE,  181. 

Newcome,  Ethel,  55. 

Newell,  W.  W.,  13. 

Newport,  R.  I.,  life  at,  71,  98, 

Nicknames  in  college,  275. 

Nightingale,  Florence,  19. 

Nithisdale,  Conntess  of,  56. 

Normandy,  a  scene  in,  201. 

Northcote,  Sir  Stafford,  136. 

Norton,  Andrews,  18. 

Norton,  C.  E.,  18. 

NOVELS  :  MEN'S  AND  WOMEN'S,  156. 

Nursery,  a  model,  264. 


INDEX.  321 

O. 

Odyssey,  Palmer's,  248. 

Opie,  Amelia,  157. 

Orestes,  44. 

ORGANIZING  MIND,  THE,  146. 

Ossoli,  Margaret  Fuller,  quoted,  211,  232. 

Outside  of  the  shelter,  7. 

P. 

Paganini,  Nicolo,  238. 
Palina,  Jacopo  (Veccbio),  307. 
Palmer,  Professor  G.  H.,  248. 
Parnell,  C.  S.,  272. 
Parochialism,  222. 
"  Patience  "  quoted,  51. 

Peabody  Museum  of  American  Archaeology,  287. 
Perdita,  102,  103. 

Petrarch,  Francisco,  quoted,  75,  285. 
Pbelps,  E.  J.,  137. 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,  the,  288. 
Philanthropist,  improvidence  of  a,  188. 
Phillips,  Wendell,  284,  309. 
Pike,  Owen,  quoted,  212,  213. 
Piuart,  Mrs.  Nuttall,  286. 
Pisani,  Catherine  de,  86. 
Plato  cited,  178. 

PLEA  FOR  THE  UN  COMMONPLACE,  A,  192. 
Poe,  E.  A.,  289. 
"Pontius  cum  Judaeis,"  256. 
Porter.  Jane,  157. 
Pre"cieu3es,  the,  87. 
Presidency  in  United  States,  128. 
Prince  Hal,  49. 

PUBLISHER,  THE  SEARCH  AFTER  A,  151. 
PUNCH  AND  JUDY,  THE  BRUTALITY  OF,  254. 
PURSE,  THE  INDEPENDENT,  115. 
21 


322  INDEX. 

Q. 

"  Quite  Enstic,"  100. 

R. 

Rachel,  250,  252,  263. 
Raclcliffe,  Aun,  160. 
Rambouillet,  Marquis  do,  86. 
"Ramon a,"  influence  of,  236. 
Rank  in  England,  126. 
Re"cfimier,  Madame,  76,. 77. 
RELATIONSHIP  TO  ONE'S  MOTHER,  ON  ONE'S,  43. 
RETURN  TO  THE  HILLS,  A,  301. 
Richardson,  Samuel,  11. 
Richelieu,  Cardinal,  87. 
Robespierre,  F.  J.  M.  I.,  6. 
Rochejaquelein,  Baroness  do  la,  56. 
Rochester,  Lord,  5. 
Rogers,  Professor  \V.  B.,  98,  287. 
Roland,  Madame,  236. 
"  Romola,"  260. 
Rontledge,  George,  18,  19. 
Royalty,  childishness  of,  21,  105. 
ROYALTY,  THE  TOY  OF,  105. 
"  Rudder  Grange  "  quoted,  42. 
Ruskin,  John,  quoted,  ICO. 

S. 

St.  Leonards,  Lord,  138. 
SAINTS,  VACATIONS  FOK,  33. 
Salem  sea-captains,  youthfuluess  of,  247. 
"  Sales-ladies,"  172. 
Salisbury,  Lord,  136. 
Salmon,  L.  M.,  287. 

Sand,  George.     See  Dudevant,  A.  L.  A. 
Sanitary  Commission,  the,  235. 
SANTA  CLAUS  AGENCIES,  269. 
Sappho,  262. 


INDEX.  323 

Sapsea,  Thomas,  94. 

Scblemihl,  Peter,  12. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  quoted  55.    Also  19, 157, 194. 

Scndery,  Charles  de,  15. 

Scude'ry,  Magdalen  de,  quoted,  15,  87,  159. 

SEARCH  AFTER  A  PUBLISHER,  THE,  151. 

SECRET  OF  THE  BIRTHDAY,  176. 

Sedgwick,  C.  M.,  289. 

So  ward,  Anna,  113, 114. 

SHADOW  OF  THE  HAREM,  THE,  12. 

Shakespeare,  William,  quoted,  56, 91, 177,  178,  239.    Also 

19,  32,  49,  55,  102,  103, 108,  262. 
Shelley,  P.  13.,  19. 
SHY  GRACES,  THE,  306. 
SICK,  ox  VISITING  THE,  227. 
Siddons,  Sarah,  250. 
Simins,  W.  G.,  223. 
SINGLE  WILL,  THE,  90. 
Sisters  of  Charity,  69. 
Size,  physical,  gradual  diminution  of,  262. 
Smith  College,  275. 

SOCIAL  PENDULUM,  THE  SWING  OF  THE,  22. 
SOCIAL  SUPERIORS,  171. 
Society,  origin  of  its  usages,  77. 
Socrates,  81. 

Somerville,  Mary,  250,  251,  252, 261. 
Sophocles,  E.  A.,  30. 
South  Sea  Island  proverb,  236. 
Spanish  manners,  25. 
Spenser,  Edmund,  quoted,  307. 
Spinning,  in  Homer,  8;  in  ancient  Rome,  13. 
Spinsters,  insufficient  supply  of,  39. 
Stael,  Madame  de,  57. 
Stone,  Fanny,  56,  58. 
Stone,  General  C.  P.,  56. 
Stowe,  H.  B.,  236. 
Studley,  Cornelia,  287. 
Sugden,  Sir  Edward,  138. 


324  INDEX. 

Swedenborg,  Einanuel,  159. 

SWING  OF  THE  SOCIAL  PENDULUM,  THE,  22. 

T. 

Taylor,  Bayard,  quoted,  6. 

Taylor's  theorem,  287. 

Tennyson,  Alfred.  Lord,  quoted,  76,  123,  249.     Also  77, 

136,  308. 

Terry,  Ellen,  221. 

Thackeray,  W.  M.,  55,  138, 173, 180, 285. 
"  The  Bread-Winners  "  cited,  104. 
Thomas,  E.  M.,  225. 
Thompson,  Elizabeth,  261. 
Thoreau,  H.  D.,  285. 
Tobogganing,  215. 
TOIL,  THE  DAUGHTERS  OF,  70. 
Tonrgufinieff,  J.  S.,  50,  309. 
TOY  OF  ROYALTY,  THE,  105. 
Tracy,  Senator,  quoted,  98. 
Trench,  Archdeacon,  quoted,  14. 
Trollope,  Anthony,  157. 
TRUST  FUNDS,  187. 
Tullia  or  Tnlliola,  276. 
Twain,  Mark,  37, 153, 218. 

U. 

UNCOMMONPLACE,  A  PLEA  FOR  THE.  192. 
UNREASONABLE  UNSELFISHNESS,  80. 
Upton,  G.  P.,  249, 251,  253. 

V. 

Vacation,  the  summer,  215. 
VACATIONS  FOR  SAINTS,  33. 
VALUE,  WHO  SHALL  Fix  THE,  202. 
Vassar  College,  279. 
Victoria,  Queen,  21, 175. 
VICTORY  OF  THE  WEAK,  THE,  296. 
Virtue  of  man  and  woman  the  same,  3. 


INDEX.  325 

VISITING  THE  SlCK,  OX,  227. 
VOICES,  166. 

Voices,  American  and  English,  167. 
Voltaire,  F.  M.  A.,  87. 

W. 

Wales,  Prince  of,  23. 

Ward,  Artemus,  described,  43. 

Warner,  C.  D.,  quoted,  217. 

Washington,  George,  296. 

WASTED,  THE  FEAR  OF  ITS  BEING,  232. 

Watson,  E.  H.,  183. 

Watson,  George,  183. 

WEAK,  VICTORY  OF  THE,  296. 

Wellesley  College,  100. 

Wellington,  the  Duke  of,  quoted,  198. 

White,  E.G.,  24. 

WThittier,  J.  G.,  quoted,  54, 117.     Also  98, 108, 153, 308. 

WHO  SHALL  FIX  THE  VALUE  ?  202. 

"Whole  duty  of  man,  the,"  4. 

WHY  WOMEN  AUTHORS  WRITE  UNDER  THE  NAMES  OF 
MEN,  259. 

Wife,  position  of,  in  Rome,  45. 

Will,  breaking  of,  in.  children,  121. 

Willis,  N.  P.,  289. 

Winlock,  Anna,  287. 

Wolcott,  Mrs.  Oliver,  98. 

Wollstonecraft,  Mary.     See  Godwin. 

WOMAN  OF  INFLUENCE,  THE,  17. 

WOMAN'S  ENTERPRISE,  A,  207. 

Women, -ad vantages  of,  29 ;  as  household  decorators,  161 ; 
as  organizers,  20, 149 ;  as  public  speakers,  239 ;  au- 
thors, 18 ;  courage  of,  142 ;  disadvantages  of,  12, 92 ; 
earnings  of,  119  ;  education  of,  88 ;  employments  of, 
60, 161,269;  plurality  of,  38;  teachers,  20,  100,  131, 
244;  their  need  of  strength,  59;  -working  among 
men,  10;  writing  under  men's  names,  259. 

WOMEN  AS  HOUSEHOLD  DECORATORS,  161. 


326  INDEX. 

Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  the,  235. 

WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  ON  LITERARY  STYLE,  85. 

WOMEN'S  LETTERS,  110. 

Wordsworth,  William,  302. 

Worth,  M.,  17. 

Wright,  C.  D.,  38. 

Wright,  Thomas,  quoted,  148. 

X. 

Xantippe,  81. 

Y. 

Yale  University,  99. 

YOUTH,  THE  FLOOD-TIDE  OF,  48. 

Z. 

Zens,  45. 


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In  happy  discriminations  the  excellence  of  Mrs.  Sherwood's 
book  is  conspicuous. — Brooklyn  Union. 

It  is  a  sensible  and  pleasantly  written  volume,  which  has 
already  won  recognition  as  one  of  the  best  books  of  its  kind, 
and  this  new  edition  is  called  for  by  the  heartiness  with  which 
the  public  has  endorsed  the  work. — Courier,  Boston. 

A  sensible,  comprehensive  book,  which  has  endured  criti- 
cism successfully,  and  deserves  now  to  be  regarded  the  best 
book  of  its  kind  published  in  this  country.  ...  A  better 
guide  than  Mrs.  Sherwood's  book  through  the  paths  of  social 
usages  we  do  not  know.  The  book  is  a  handsome  one,  as  it 
ought  to  be. —  Christian  Intelligencer,  N.  Y. 


PUBLISHED  BY  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  NEW  YORK. 

HAEPEH  &  BROTHKUS  will  send  the  above  work  by  mail,  post- 
aye  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States  or 
Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  ))rice. 


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